


Meetings

by PsychoSister



Series: Friendly Four Verse [1]
Category: Darkwing Duck (Cartoon 1991)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, M/M, Multi, Negaverse (Disney), Polyamory, short scene with mentions of, though it's mostly friendship and crushes in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 05:21:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21404860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PsychoSister/pseuds/PsychoSister
Summary: The Negaverse- a world where the city of Saint Canard is ruled by the villainous Negaduck. In this city overrun with crime and corruption, a group of heroes come together to fight back against injustice.
Relationships: Nega-Bushroot/Nega-Liquidator/Nega-Megavolt/Nega-Quackerjack
Series: Friendly Four Verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1543108
Comments: 20
Kudos: 28





	1. Megavolt & Quackerjack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first to meet are the city’s long-time protector, Megavolt, and a particularly colorful clown named Quackerjack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I FINALLY finished the first few parts of my Friendly Four stories! Before going into it, I’d recommend checking out one of my previous posts talking about my [Friendly Four designs and backstories](https://psychosistr.tumblr.com/post/186909332105/friendly-four-concepts), just so you can get a better idea of what they look like. Hope you guys enjoy it!

The first one that Megavolt found was Quackerjack. Or, rather, Quackerjack found HIM.

It was another long night of patrol for Saint Canard’s lone protector, Megavolt. The city was large and teeming with crime thanks to the town’s influential dictator- Negaduck. The task of protecting a city so massive, and so rampant with crime, was indeed daunting, but the lightning-bolt themed and purple-clad hero was more than prepared to do what had to be done for the hope of a brighter future!

As he used his electrical powers and a touch of magnetism to his steel-toed/soled boots to glide along the city’s many sparking electrical wires, Megavolt heard the terrified screams of a woman nearby.

“HELP! Please, someone! HELP!” The woman cried in terror, the cries followed by a deafening roar.

Megavolt rushed towards the sound, jumping from wire to wire to cut down on his time. “HOLD ON!!!”

When he arrived, he found a female duck and her two children being backed up against a chain-link fence in an alleyway by a tall, spiky, hulking being that was covered in shadows. Out of fear, one of the children threw their lit flashlight at the beast and screamed.

The light source hit the behemoth then bounced off of a grey stomach. When the flashlight rolled across the ground, its light shined on the monster to reveal it in its entirety:

It was a massive dinosaur-like creature with armored plates on its skin and spikes growing all down its back. Its tail had a large stone-like tip that flicked about in irritation, smashing anything it touched. Around it’s pointy-beaked face, it had more spikes that grew out from four separate points to make it look even more intimidating- its shaggy red hair, scarred-eye, and torn black pants doing nothing to help dissuade the initial feelings its body gave any onlookers.

It let out an angered snarl when the light shined on its face and shielded itself by placing its hands over its eyes. “Ow! Stupid light!” It growled and stomped on the flashlight with one of its massive feet, crushing the device with ease. “I warned you to quit shining that stupid thing at me!” He (from the voice, it appeared to be a male) snarled as he advanced on the frightened family.

Wasting no time, Megavolt magnetized his shoes to the metal gutter-pipe of the nearby building and slid down to land between the family and the dinosaur. “Stop right there, evil doer!”

The woman gasped in surprise and relief. “Megavolt!” The kids cheered his name as well, looking up at him with relief in their tear-filled eyes.

Megavolt faced the monster while standing in front of them, hands sparking in preparation for the impending battle. “Don’t worry, citizens- I’ll deal with this disrespectful dino!” At his cue, the citizens ran away, the dinosaur now much more focused on him than the weak commoners.

“Megavolt, huh?” The dinosaur sneered down at him, stepping closer to show how he towered over the smaller rat. “What’re you gonna do? Shock me? Go on, I dare ya!”

“Alright, if you insist!” Megavolt charged a blast of electricity to his fingertip and fired it right at the monster’s chest. To his shock and horror, though, the attack did absolutely nothing. “What?!”

The dinosaur smirked at him and cracked his knuckles. “Guess you haven’t heard of me, huh? The name’s Shamutt.” He reeled his fist back in preparation for a punch. “And if there’s one thing I hate more than light, it’s stupid noisy heroes!” His fist flew forward and hit Megavolt right in the chest, sending him flying.

Megavolt nearly crashed into the wall, but was saved thanks to his still slightly magnetized shoes dragging him off course towards the metal fence that the family from earlier had previously been cornered against. Shaking the dizziness off from the blow, Megavolt found he wasn’t given much time to recover before the Jurassic jerk was closing in for another attack, this time with his hammer-like tail.

Thinking quickly, Megavolt used his magnetized shoes to run vertically up the fence, perched briefly at the top, then grasped the metal fence posts and channeled a healthy dose of electricity into the fence. He jumped from the fence onto the metal gutter-pipe he’d slid down earlier at the last possible second, resulting in the dinosaur’s mighty tail striking the fence and becoming wrapped up and pierced by the electrified metal.

Shamutt let out a pained roar, the electricity apparently having a stronger effect now that it was hitting a weaker area. By the time he’d managed to free his tail from the fence, the giant was looking dizzy.

Megavolt decided to follow up his attack and stay on the offensive. To do so, he gripped the gutter-pipe tightly and pressed off from the wall with his feet until it broke loose from its rusted restraints. He charged his electricity into the metal and angled his fall so that the pipe would land on Shamutt’s head.

The attack nearly worked, but Shamutt turned and slammed his freed tail into the rat and the pipe. Thankfully, having the pipe in the way cushioned some of what would have otherwise been a fatal blow.

The resulting collision sent Megavolt sprawling out into the street past the mouth of the alleyway. He was about to get up, when a shadow loomed over him menacingly. He looked up just in time to see Shamutt’s tail swinging down towards him and rolled out of the way.

Unfortunately, this resulted in him rolling against the side of a parked car and, effectively, trapping him in place. “!!”

Shamutt walked up to him with an evil grin and raised his foot, preparing to stomp on him. “Nighty night, Mr.Hero!”

Before he could follow through on the action, however, a new voice cut itself into the conversation. “ ‘Nighty night’? What are you talking about, big guy? It’s not bedtime!” Both Shamutt and Megavolt were surprised when a small cluster of marbles were thrown at Shamutt’s face. The marbles exploded on impact, sending the titan off-balance. As a follow-up, Megavolt saw something colorful suddenly slam into the dinosaur, sending him flying. “It’s PLAAAYYYYTIIIIME!!”

Shamutt was sent tumbling across the sidewalk before turning over onto his knees so he could look at what just hit him with an angry snarl. “Alright, what’s the big idea?!”

Shamutt and Megavolt saw a duck in a VERY colorful clown-like costume wielding what, at first, appeared to be a metal baseball bat painted in a tessellation of diamonds that matched the duck’s color scheme. Upon closer inspection from his angle, though, Megavolt could see three large holes on the back of the bat and could smell smoke, hinting that maybe the bat had a little more firepower hidden within.

“The ‘big idea’,” The clown-themed duck began while spinning the bat around in a wide circle. “Is that the game you were playing looked kind of unfair. So,” He tossed the bat in the air briefly, making it spin in shiny, eye-catching circles that made the colors look mesmerizing when the streetlights reflected off of the metallic surface. “I thought I’d come and even things out!” While the dinosaur was distracted by the flashy display, the duck held out a hand to help Megavolt to his feet. “Whattaya say, Sparky?”

Megavolt grinned and took the offered hand, pulling himself to his feet. “Sounds good to me.” He charged electricity down to his hands once the duck let go, feeling far more confident now that he had backup. “But don’t call me Sparky- the name’s Megavolt!”

“Heh, alright, Megavolt.” Without even looking, the clown caught the bat perfectly in his hand when it fell back towards him. “Call me Quackerjack!”

Then, as if they both heard a starting-gun go off, they leapt into action together- running at Shamutt at the same time.

Quackerjack pressed down on the heart-shaped pin located on the bat’s handle and it made a sound like a car engine starting up. With a loud rev, the holes on the back of the bat suddenly ignited and Megavolt now understood what they were:

They were **rockets**.

Flames shot out of the holes and Quackerjack used the added momentum to smash the bat into Shamutt’s tail when the dinosaur-like villain tried to hit them with it. The extra force allowed him to successfully counter the lethally strong appendage and throw the giant reptile off-balance again.

Megavolt followed his new companion’s attack with one of his own, shooting a charged blast of electricity right at the already off-kilter titan’s eyes. The energy was bright and flashy, but Megavolt still held back to avoid causing permanent damage. With any luck, the attack would-

“AAAAAH!” Shamutt screamed in pain when the blast blinded him. “My eyes!” He began rubbing roughly at his stinging eyes to clear his vision. “When I get my hands on you little twerps, I’ll crush you like the tiny bugs you are!”

“We may be kind of small.” He heard Megavolt say as his vision slowly came back to him. “But, you know what they say: The bigger they are-” Shamutt’s vision cleared just in time for him to see Megavolt touching his charged hand to Quackerjack’s bat.

“The harder they fall!” Quackerjack finished the quote for him and activated the bat’s rockets while running at Shamutt. He spun around on the last step before taking a flying leap and smashing the charged bat into the giant lizard’s head.

The combined force and momentum of the metal bat, together with the electrical charge coursing through the metal, made for an extremely effective improvised stun-baton.

“!!!” The blow connected and Shamutt’s eyes rolled back into his head as he was properly knocked out.

* * *

About half an hour later, onlookers were gathered around the street to see the spectacle that was a giant Jurassic mutant tied upside down to the side of a building by a series of magnetized pipes and already-broken street lamps with a small cluster of moving wind-up teeth jumping and chomping at his head every time he struggled to break free of his bindings.

The cherry on top was the brightly painted sign above him in a rainbow of letters that read “THIS DINO’S CRIME-SPREE JUST WENT THE WAY OF THE DODO! –COURTESY OF YOUR FRIENDLY LOCAL HEROES, THE DYNAMIC DUO MEGAVOLT & QUACKERJACK”

The heroes in question watched the scene unfold while sitting on the edge of a rooftop down the block with their legs hanging over the edge.

“I really owe you one.” Megavolt said while smiling at Quackerjack. “If you didn’t come along when you did, I’d be the one going extinct right now!”

Quackerjack chuckled at the obvious joke, clearly amused by the rat’s sense of humor. “Eh, don’t mention it. There aren’t that many heroes in this town- we’ve gotta stick together!”

Megavolt let out a long-suffering sigh and collapsed back against the cool roof-top beneath him. “You’re telling me! I’ve been doing this on my own since I was SEVENTEEN! Do you have ANY idea how tiring that gets?!”

“**_Seventeen_**?!” Quackerjack’s large beak fell open in disbelief when he heard the number. “Geez, I’ve only been at this for a year and I’m already **_exhausted_**! How the heck are you still alive?!”

“Heck if I know..” Megavolt pulled himself back up, reaching behind himself to straighten his slightly rumpled cape. “Still, it was nice to have some help for a change..and we did make a pretty **_electrifying_** team..” He looked at Quackerjack with a hopeful but slightly anxious smile, holding out one hand in invitation. “What would you say about going from a solo act to a duet?”

Quackerjack looked at him with a huge grin that practically split his face. “I’d say,” He took the offered hand, and everything it stood for, and grasped it with a level of enthusiasm that was nearly contagious. “You’ve got yourself a new partner in crime-fighting, Sparky!”

“Don’t call me Sparky.” Megavolt corrected the other’s nickname for him, but the smile on his face and the joy in his heart did not falter for even a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter is short and sweet just because I always felt like these two would have the easiest chemistry. The next chapter with Bushroot will be longer and have each of the three revealing their backstories!
> 
> Also, for anyone who was curious or didn’t get it, yes, Shamutt is Stegmutt- I decided to change his dinosaur from a stegosaurus to a [shamosaurus](http://dinosaurpictures.org/Shamosaurus-pictures)(you can scroll towards the bottom of the page if you just want picture references). They’re within the same dino-family, but I felt like the shamosaurus looked dark and intimidating enough to fit in with the villainous theme of the Negaverse.


	2. Bushroot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few months into the dynamic duo’s heroic partnership, Megavolt and Quackerjack encounter a rather interesting, if a bit grumpy, plant mutant by the name of Bushroot. Is the poisonous plant-duck really as bad as he seems, or is there potential for friendship, and more, to bloom from their encounters?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As stated in the previous chapter, this one’s going to be a bit longer and go into the three character’s backstories a bit more. Enjoy!
> 
> Also, quick trigger warning because there is a scene that briefly deals with child abuse.

Megavolt and Quackerjack ran into Bushroot three times before they convinced him to join their little team.

The first time was at an old gardening supply store that had been out of business for years- thanks to the heavy pollution in the air, as well as a strict “no flowers in the city” law enforced by Negaduck and his goons, places like that were the hardest hit.

Still, even if it was a long-dead hobby, it seemed that some people still saw fit to loiter around the dilapidated building. This led to a rather noisy conflict that caught Megavolt and Quackerjack’s attention one day while they were out on patrol. When the pair followed the sounds of destruction and violence, they found a group of local thugs lying sprawled out in various states around the building- one face-first in a trashcan, one bent over an old bench, one shorter man hanging from the shop’s busted door, and another tied up with a gardening hose.

Following the noises into the building, Megavolt keeping one finger charged and Quackerjack priming one marble between his thumb and forefinger in preparation for a fight if they had to, they found another member of the gang from outside currently engaged in battle with what, to their surprise, appeared to be some sort of mutant plant creature.

The mutant plant creature was once a duck, its bill clearly giving that much away. It seemed rather thin, with thorn-covered vines for arms and a cluster of three oblong and lightly-pointed leaves of varying sizes (two large ones and one smaller) at the end of each arm to form its hands. The thorns lessened the closer they got to its shoulders until they reached its torso, which was a solid mass of green the same shade as its vines and actually seemed slightly fuzzy with fine hairs that were visible all over its upper-half. Halfway-down its torso, the green color gradually faded to brown where the fuzzy texture lessened and the texture became woodier, giving it hips and legs that looked like branching, vine-like roots woven together to form the lower appendages in a facsimile of a regular duck’s feet (if slightly more jagged due to the branching off roots here and there).

What caught the heroes’ attention the most, however, was its head: It was green like the rest of its upper body, but with surprisingly bright blue eyes. Or, rather, they assumed both eyes were blue, as one was covered by a large flower petal that fell over half of its face. Sprouting from the top of the mutant’s head was a giant flower that seemed to serve as a sort of “hair-style” for it with five main petals- one curled downward to cover its face, as well as two a little further back that were half-way between drooping at the same level as the one in the front or standing up parallel to the top of its head like the last two on the back of its head- and a cluster of much smaller yellow petals that stood straight up to cover the center of its head.

While they’d encountered quite a few mutants during both of their time as superheroes, this one definitely caught both Megavolt and Quackerjack by surprise with how colorful it looked in comparison.

“Look..this is the last warning I’m gonna give you.” The plant mutant said in a voice that spoke volumes regarding his (they could tell by the voice now) irritation. “Turn around, walk back out to your friends, and LEAVE. ME. **ALONE**.” Oh yeah, he was definitely irritated and ready to hurt whatever set him off next.

Which, unfortunately, seemed to be the punk currently trying to pick a fight with him. “Ha! You think THOSE chumps are my friends?! Those losers ain’t got nothin’ on me!” He flicked open the knife in his hand and charged at the mutant plant-duck with clear intent.

Quackerjack and Megavolt were about to intervene and break up the fight, when, with a tired and irritated sigh, the plant-duck raised one of his leafy hands and made a snapping motion (no snap came of it, though, because of the texture of his hand, merely a rustling sound). “Spot.”

All three other occupants in the room were briefly confused by the gesture and the seemingly out-of-nowhere word…until they heard a barking sound and the heavy “thump thump thump” of something approaching on multiple limbs.

When the sound got close enough, everyone but the plant mutant was shocked to see a giant purple pitcher plant the size of a mini-van running around on four vines like a large dog. Actually, comparing it to a dog seemed to be pretty accurate, since it opened the top-leaf that served as the upper portion of its mouth and let out a barking sound when it arrived at its master’s side. “Woof! Woof!” As it ran in a circle around its master, Quackerjack and Megavolt could even see a happily wagging “tail’ covered in small white flowers growing out of a green spot on its back.

The plant-duck gave the overly excited pitcher plant a pat on the head before pointing a leafy finger at the current source of his irritation. “Go play, Spot.”

The pitcher plant let out another happy bark before running towards the punk that tried to pick a fight with its master. “Woof!”

Seeing he was clearly outmatched by the giant plant monster, the thug screamed and ran away in fear. “AAAAAH!”

“Uh, Quackerjack..we should probably do something to stop this, huh..?” Megavolt finally asked once the bizarreness of the situation had a chance to settle in his mind.

“Huh?” Quackerjack blinked, finally being brought out of his own state of disbelief. “Oh! Yeah, right, right! You take Dr.Plant-little and I’ll go play with the dog, deal?”

“Works for me.” Megavolt nodded his agreement, the two doing a quick back-handed version of a fist-bump before running off to face their chosen enemies. Megavolt ran over to where the mutated duck was now grabbing a wheelbarrow and filling it with dusty old bags of plant food. “Hold it right there!” He pointed dramatically at the frustrated foliage-themed fiend.

The response he got was an irritated groan when the mutant allowed the plant food in his arms to drop roughly into the wheelbarrow. “What?” He shot Megavolt a glare that, were it tangible, would probably strangle him or set him on fire.

“Acts of violence and thievery are not welcome in this town!” Megavolt pointed at the wheelbarrow accusingly.

“Gee, could’ve fooled me. You DO realize you’re in Saint Canard, right?” The irritated mutant asked sarcastically with a cocked brow and a scowl on his face.

Megavolt scowled slightly himself when the plant-duck brushed him off after that comment and went back to filling his wheelbarrow. “Just because a few people choose to commit crimes doesn’t make it right! If you don’t surrender now, we WILL be forced to subdue you!” He shot a small spark of electricity at the ground near the rooted-feet of his enemy to show he was serious.

Blue eyes momentarily glanced down at where the spark hit before vine-shoulders shrugged indifferently as the rest of the arms continued their work. “You can try- won’t make a difference.” He finished his task and turned his head to call his pet. “Spot, let’s go!” When he didn’t receive a response right away, he started looking around for the giant plant. “Spot?”

Megavolt smirked triumphantly and folded his arms over his chest. “My partner is taking care of your wicked weed as we speak, villain!”

He received a glare from that comment, the irritated plant-person about to say something back to him, but they were interrupted by the loud “thump thump” of the approaching plant-beast.

“Down, boy! Heel!” He heard Quackerjack shout over the thunderously loud footsteps.

Tilting his head to get a better view, Megavolt spotted the clown-hero being dragged behind the pitcher plant by a length of neon-green jump rope tied to the beast’s legs. He could also see that the dog-like mutant’s other feet sported similar ropes of varying colors that had apparently been broken off from whatever they were tied to before.

Megavolt managed to grab onto Quackerjack when the excited plant ran by, helping him up onto his feet. “You okay?”

Quackerjack shook himself briefly to get rid of some of the dirt and dust that had coated the front of his costume. “Yeah..gotta say, I prefer walking the dog with a yo-yo…”

Their attention returned to the pair of purloining plants when the pitcher-dog leaned down and opened its large mouth expectantly. “Try not to eat all of it, okay? Save some for the others.” When the plant nodded to show it understood, the smaller mutant rolled the wheelbarrow directly into its gaping maw. “Alright, let’s head home.” He patted the beast’s head once it closed its mouth. Just as they were about to leave, though, their path was blocked by the colorful heroes, making the former-duck roll his eyes. “Seriously? What are you even gonna do? Arrest me? If you haven’t noticed, there aren’t any prisons around here…well, except for the ones _Negaduck_ uses..”

Megavolt and Quackerjack picked up a bit of loathing in the way the mutant spoke of their town’s dictator, but didn’t have time to question it as the giant dog-like pitcher plant tried to run past them.

Pointing a finger at the plant’s path, Megavolt fired of a bolt of electricity that startled the giant mutant and made it back up a few feet. “!!”

Megavolt stood in the pair’s way, his voice strong and full of conviction while his face was set in a determined glare. “We may have nowhere to send you..but that doesn’t mean we can just let criminals continue to do as they please.”

“This town won’t change unless guys like us MAKE IT change.” Quackerjack was instantly at his side, his baseball bat gripped firmly in his hand and clearly ready for a fight.

The plant-duck looked down slightly after they delivered their lines, a bitter scowl on his face that felt…kind of sad, honestly. “Hmph..what a bunch of sentimental garbage..” He did the snapping motion again. “Spot, head home- I’ll catch up with you.” The pitcher plant started to whine at him, but he gave it a firm glare. “NOW, Spot.”

The plant whimpered, but did as it was told and tried to run past the heroes again.

Once again they prepared to stop it, but, this time, they were the ones who were stopped. Specifically, they were stopped by a pair of leafy hands that stretched over and grabbed each of them by one of their arms, tossing them aside as if they weighed nothing at all.

Megavolt landed on top of some old planting pots (plastic, thankfully, not clay or ceramic) and garden hoses, while Quackerjack managed to right himself in the air and flip over on top of an old gardening tool stand. “!!”

Since Megavolt was a bit disoriented from hitting the pots and tangled in the rubber hoses, Quackerjack was the first one to fight back. He reached into his handy toy-pouch and pulled out a handful of his brightly colored exploding marbles. “So, what should we call you?” He asked while jumping off of the stand and shooting the marbles at the plant mutant one after another using his thumb. “Flower Power? Creep Vine? Poison Ivy- wait, that last one feels copy-righted-”

“Don’t you ever stop talking?” To his credit, the plant man was pretty quick on his feet. He was able to dodge all of Quackerjack’s attacks by running serpentine through the store. What was even more impressive was that, when he ran into obstacles, the roots that formed his feet would detangle and spread out to allow him to climb over anything with ease. At one point, he vanished from sight behind an old shelf full of seed packets. “And I already have a name..” His voice echoed through the store, making it hard for Quackerjack to pinpoint his exact location…until the voice came from directly above him with an irritated sneer. “It’s **_Bushroot_**.”

“!!” Quackerjack looked up in alarm to see the plant duck hanging from the rafters by his completely unraveled lower half. He brought his hand back, a different colored marble situated between each finger, and prepared to throw them. However, before he had the chance, something green wrapped around his wrist and restrained it. “Huh?!”

Turning his head, Quackerjack saw that he was being held back by what appeared to be a bunch of **_dandelions_**. Following the trail of long stems and flowers, he saw that they originated from a torn-open packet of seeds by the shelf that Bushroot had vanished behind earlier.

“Quackerjack! Look out!” He heard Megavolt calling to him from the other side of the store.

Looking up, he saw Bushroot dropping down from the ceiling as his legs reformed. He landed right in front of Quackerjack and managed to smack the bat out of his other hand before the clown had time to react. With his main weapon gone and his other hand unable to access his backups, Bushroot was able to hold Quackerjack still long enough for more dandelions and various other plants now growing from the wall of seeds to wrap around Quackerjack and fully restrain him.

“Never was a fan of clowns.” Bushroot mused as he looked over the tied-up harlequin. “Except for mimes since, you know, they don’t talk.” He pinched Quackerjack’s beak shut with one leafy hand to prove his point and a tomato vine wrapped around his mouth to effectively muzzle him. And, apparently because either Bushroot, the plant, or both had a sense of humor, the vine sprouted a big red tomato right on the tip of his beak in a mocking gesture. “There, much better.” He grabbed the vines around Quackerjack’s torso and tossed him behind the long-unused register counter. Right afterwards, though, he had to duck to avoid a bolt of electricity that nearly hit him in the face. “Oh yeah..almost forgot about you..”

Megavolt glared at him, now standing up and free of the rubber hoses that had bound him earlier. “This ends **now**, Bushroot.”

“Wow, talk about cliché.” Bushroot scoffed with a roll of his eyes, one hand resting on his hip and the other doing a lazy “come on” gesture. “Alright, Sparky, let’s get this over with.”

“Don’t call me Sparky.” Megavolt charged electricity down to his hands to prepare his attack, opting for a close-range assault since Quackerjack’s distance strategy offered too many ways for the sneaky creature to escape or hide. “The name’s **Megavolt**!” He clenched his hands into fists and ran at the plant-hybrid, swinging the charged appendages at the surprisingly agile duck.

Much to Megavolt’s annoyance (and mild amazement), Bushroot was able to dodge every single one of his punches by either using his agile feet to side-step away, or by bending his body at unnatural angles since he seemed to lack bones that would hinder his movements. “You guys are really serious about this whole ‘hero’ thing, huh?” His upper body bent and twisted sideways to avoid a blow to his head. “Word of advice-”

Megavolt felt something wrap around his ankle and looked down briefly to investigate. “Wha-?!” He saw plants, similar to the ones that had caught Quackerjack earlier, grabbing his leg.

“In this world, nice guys ALWAYS finish last.” Bushroot finished his sentence right as the dandelions lifted Megavolt off of the ground and started taking him up towards the rafters.

“Dang it!” Megavolt turned his still mildly-charged hands on the vines and reached up to grab them. Passing the current in his hands into the green stems and leaves, he freed himself by burning the plants holding him captive. That, unfortunately, caused him to start plummeting to the ground. “Woah!” Thinking quickly, he magnetized his shoes and was able to catch himself on a rickety old rack of chicken-wire- the springiness of the light-weight wires able to cushion his landing.

Recovering from the fall, Megavolt rushed to get back up onto his feet, preparing himself for whatever attack was about to come next. To his surprise, though, there was no attack waiting for him.

Instead, he saw Bushroot holding out his hands so that the burned plants could fall down from the ceiling into his waiting grasp. “Shh..it’s okay..” He soothed the slightly quivering flowers by patting them gently with two of his leafy fingers. He then carefully started pinching off the burned pieces of the plants until only the green was left. Once it was clear, he rubbed the raw edges of the stems to soothe them further. “There we go..little water, some food, and you’ll be good to go..” He moved the flowers up onto his shoulders, where they curled around him like some sort of scarf or a pet snake.

“……” Megavolt was…well, for lack of a better word, SHOCKED by the surprisingly tender display. He’d never seen a villain act so caring or paternal towards their weapons and/or minions before.

While he was caught in that stunned state of trying to process what he’d just seen, Bushroot stretched one of his already long arms so that it could reach the area of garden hoses that Megavolt had fallen in earlier. “Alright, I’m bored. Let’s wrap this up.” He brought the hose over to himself and gripped it in both hands while glaring at Megavolt.

Still a bit thrown off from the villainous vegetation’s previous demeanor, Megavolt clenched his hands into fists again. “Y-Yeah..right..” He charged a little electricity into them, but it was nowhere near the amount he’d used before- his heart just wasn’t in it this time.

The two rushed at each other again, Megavolt throwing punches while Bushroot evaded. Only, this time, Bushroot looked for openings and, when he found them, bound Megavolt’s hands one after the other by catching them mid-strike with the rubber hose. This was a sound strategy, as the rubber was not only difficult to break out of, but it also cut off the flow of Megavolt’s electricity.

Soon enough, Bushroot had both of Megavolt’s hands tied behind his back and had even tied them to his feet for good measure. “There..” He let out an exhausted sigh when he finished and lifted Megavolt easily by his arm, tossing him behind the counter next to the still bound and squirming Quackerjack. “Do me a favor next time you see me-” Bushroot leaned over the register-counter to glare down at the pair of heroes, a stern, warning tone to his voice. “Leave me **_ALONE_**.” Having said his piece, he turned and walked away, but not before calling one last message over his shoulder. “Oh, and for the record- THEY started it.”

After Bushroot left, it took about twenty minutes of Megavolt biting through the vines tying up Quackerjack for the clown to finally break free and untie the electrical rodent as well.

“Sooo…” Quackerjack began, leaning back on his hands and stretching his legs out in front of him. “We just got our butt’s handed to us by a talking thorn bush, huh?”

“Yeah.” Megavolt rubbed at his sore wrists under his gloves. “Yeah, we did..”

Neither of them were strangers to losing battles- it kind of came with the hero territory, especially in a city of so many super-powerful beings in a place like Saint Canard- but, since they’d teamed up, the two of them were usually able to handle whatever adversary they came across with varying degrees of ease or difficulty.

In the months since the two had known each other, aside from Negaduck and his lackeys they had NEVER fought someone that was both strong and clever enough to beat them so effortlessly and it was, honestly, a bit unnerving.

Quackerjack jumped up to his feet, offering Megavolt a hand up. “Wanna track him back to his lair?” Megavolt pulled himself up with Quackerjack’s help, but, before he could answer, something on the counter caught the jester’s eye. “Huh? Hold the phone, Megs..” He reached over with his free hand and grabbed the object he’d spotted by the register, showing it to Megavolt. “Check this out..”

Megavolt’s eyes widened when he saw the crumpled up wad of fifty dollar bills in Quackerjack’s hand. “He PAYED?!!!”

“Yeah..” Quackerjack looked down at the money as well. “If he’s supposed to be a villain, he sure doesn’t make a lot of CENTS.”

Megavolt rolled his eyes slightly at the pun, but was too busy processing everything they’d just witnessed.

Maybe there was more to the moody plant mutant than there appeared to be…

* * *

The second time they ran into Bushroot, Megavolt and Quackerjack were responding to a shrill scream and had gone to investigate.

When they arrived, they saw Bushroot lifting a crying little dog girl with white fur up onto the back of his pitcher plant pet while a woman, clearly the girl’s mother, shouted at him.

“You put her down this instant, you disgusting freak!” The woman shouted, seething with anger but keeping her distance since she clearly understood that attacking him would be unwise. “Give her back RIGHT NOW!”

Bushroot just scowled at her and folded his thorny arms over his chest with a cocked brow. “Oh yeah? And what if I say no? What are YOU gonna do about it? **_Hit me_**?” When her only answer was to glare and fume silently, the corner of Bushroot’s beak lifted slightly in a smirk. “Uh huh. That’s what I thought.” He turned back to the girl and his pet and patted Spot on his side. “C’mon, Spot, let’s go.”

“Not so fast, Bushroot!” Megavolt shouted, sending a warning spark from the tip of his finger to land near the plant mutant’s feet and get his attention.

Bushroot turned to look at the heroic duo and glared. “You two? Seriously?”

“Yep. Us two. Seriously.” Quackerjack replied sarcastically with a grin before sticking his tongue out at the grumpy plant man childishly.

“Return that girl to her mother right now!” Megavolt commanded while pointing another electrically-charged finger at Bushroot.

Bushroot didn’t flinch or even bat an eye at the tone of Megavolt’s voice or the clear but unspoken threat of physical violence. “Yeah- not gonna happen.” He folded his arms over his chest, eyes narrowed in a silent warning of his own. “You couldn’t stop me last time- this won’t be that different.” He unfolded one arm and patted Spot on his side. “Get her out of here, Spot- go.”

“Woof!” Spot let out a loud bark and ran off, bounding past the heroes and the girl’s mother thanks to Bushroot reaching his long arms over to shove all three of them aside roughly.

“No!” Megavolt scrambled to his feet and ran after the pitcher plant. “I’ll get the girl!”

“I don’t think so.” Bushroot tried to grab him again to prevent his pursuit, but his long arm was suddenly pinned to the ground by the tip of Quackerjack’s bat.

“Ah, ah, ah.” Quackerjack wagged one finger at Bushroot in a scolding manner. “You get to play with me first, Bush-brain.” Quackerjack flicked his bat, sending the green appendage back in the direction of its owner and standing in Bushroot’s path with a challenging grin on his face. “You won our game of hide and seek last time, so I think I should get to choose the game this time. Sound like fun?”

Bushroot glared at him with an irritated scowl. “Sounds like something, but fun’s not the word I’d choose..”

“Awww, c’moooonn- this one’s a classic!” Quackerjack gave him a fake pout and reached into his toy pouch to grab something. “It was one of my FAVORITE games for recess.” He pulled out a small red sphere that, when he pressed a button on the bottom, inflated into a big red ball. “Dodgeball!!” The excited clown shouted as he threw the ball at Bushroot.

Bushroot easily dodged the ball by leaning to the side. “Eh, never really saw the appeal of dodgeball..the ‘dodge’ part’s fine-” He suddenly ducked, narrowly avoiding the ball when it rebounded off of a wall behind him and nearly hit him in the head. “It’s the ‘ball’ part I’m not a fan of…” He glared at the ball that was now faintly flashing red.

Quackerjack held out his hand and the ball returned to it as if it were magnetic. “What? Seriously? But half the game’s only half the fun!” He tossed the ball again with a chuckle. “Why don’t you try and catch it!”

Bushroot dodged the ball again both times- the first time when it was thrown at him and then again when it rebounded back to Quackerjack. “Gee, thanks, but…no.” He replied sarcastically. “It probably explodes or something, right?”

“Or something.” Quackerjack answered vaguely with a mischievous grin and a giggle. “You’ll see when you lose!” He reached into the pouch again and pulled out a handful of the little red balls, tossing them on the ground to activate them.

Meanwhile, Megavolt was in hot pursuit of the pitcher plant and the girl clinging fearfully to its back. He had magnetized his shoes and was now skating across the tops of the power lines, using the electrical currents running through them to go even faster.

Finally seeing an opening, he jumped over to another set of cables and slid down to the ground so that he ended up ahead of Spot and the girl. “Sit!” He commanded, holding a hand out to stop the plant in its tracks.

“Woof!” Instantly, the puppy-minded plant skidded to a halt and sat down on the ground in front of Megavolt, its tail wagging excitedly.

“Good boy.” Megavolt praised, slowly walking closer. “Now..just give me the girl..”

When he made a move to reach for her, however, the large plant suddenly stood up again and growled, even shaking its “head” back and forth in a negative motion. “Rrrrh!” It backed up, squatting slightly on its front legs like a dog ready to attack.

“Easy, boy..” Megavolt tried to soothe it with one hand, discretely charging electricity into his other hand while hiding it behind his back just in case. It appeared to be working at first, so Megavolt took a step closer. “That’s it..just relax..I just want to-”

“Camilla, you get off of that disgusting thing THIS INSTANT!!” The voice of the woman from earlier suddenly shouted, making Megavolt turn his head to see her running up to them from down the street and looking rather winded.

Whatever progress he’d been making with Spot was suddenly and rudely shattered when the pet plant let out a decidedly darker and more vicious growl, backing away from Megavolt and the approaching woman. “!!!!!”

“AAAAAAH!” The girl, still clinging to Spot’s back, screamed and held onto it tighter when it began to move. “No!!”

The plant took off running again and Megavolt chased after it, firing off the electrical charge from his hand in an attempt to scorch one of its feet just badly enough to trip it.

The attack worked, but it sent the girl flying into the air. “!!” Megavolt ran as fast as he could, then, at the last second, he charged two blasts of energy to his feet and used them to propel himself up into the air. He managed to grab the girl and magnetized his shoes to some metal siding on a nearby building so they could slide down safely. “Whew..that was a close one..”

To his surprise, the girl in his arms started crying again and struggled in his grasp once they were on the ground. “No! Let me go! Let me go!”

“W-Woah, there! It’s okay! You’re safe now! I’m one of the good guys, promise!” He tried to calm her down and keep her from running away. However, in the process of doing so, and thanks to his closer proximity to her now, he saw something dark under her white far that he’d missed earlier. “Huh? Wait..” He carefully pushed some of the fur on her cheek aside and it confirmed what he thought he’d seen: **_Bruises_**. Large bruises of varying shapes and colors scattered between her face and her neck that were far too big, and some far too old, to have been caused by Bushroot with his leafy hands just a few minutes ago. “Who did this to you..?” He asked with a frown, his confusion replaced with concern and righteous fury for the poor girl’s state.

His question was quickly answered when the girl’s mother started to catch up to them. The girl saw her coming and gasped, a panicked look in her eyes. “Ah!” She squirmed out of Megavolt’s grasp and ran back over to the pitcher plant. “Help me! Please!”

Spot whimpered as it stood back up on its vines properly, but it lowered itself enough that the girl could climb onto it again. “Woof!”

As Megavolt watched the girl interacting with the pitcher plant- as he saw the fear in her eyes looking at her own mother and the way the injured giant waited until she was clinging to it securely to move again- he finally understood the truth of what happened.

“……” With a strong stride that spoke of firm convictions, Megavolt stepped out in front of the pitcher plant while facing the approaching woman. He raised a single finger and pointed it at her, firing a spark that hit the ground near her feet. “That’s far enough!”

The woman gasped in surprise and nearly fell back to avoid the warning shot. “Wha-?! What are you doing?! That beast has my daughter! Aren’t you supposed to be a hero or something?! Do the right thing and BRING. HER. TO. ME!” The indignation and rage was clear in her voice, but Megavolt chose to ignore her.

“I **_am_** doing the right thing.” Megavolt turned around to face Spot, holding one hand out by way of a peace offering and keeping the other one visible this time to show he wasn’t planning anything. “Sorry about earlier. Can you take me back to Bushroot?”

“……” Spot was quiet for a moment before barking and nuzzling Megavolt’s out-stretched hand. “Woof!” Spot kneeled down so that Megavolt could climb on too, its tail wagging happily behind it.

“Thanks, Spot.” Megavolt gave it a gentle pat on its head before climbing on behind the girl, holding onto Spot with one hand and her with the other to help steady her.

With an excited bark the plant took off running back the way they’d come from, though not without bowling over the indignant and enraged mother and knocking her into a pile of very old and disgusting trash bags along the way.

By the time they’d returned to where they’d left Quackerjack and Bushroot fighting, the tide had certainly turned in Quackerjack’s favor.

While he’d gone down from five flashing red balls to two, the sacrifice of his toys had been worth it: All across the impromptu battlefield were globs of a red putty-like substance that seemed very sticky and squishy at the same time.

Bushroot looked exceptionally irritated, as he was currently stuck in one of the globs. Specifically, his arm was stuck in one on the side of a building, leaving him pinned in place. “……” He glared silently at the giggling jester in front of him.

“Looks like you’ve gotten yourself in a pretty STICKY SITUATION, eh, Bushy?” Quackerjack teased while idly balancing the two remaining balls on the tip of his bat. “Maybe it’s time for you make like a tree and LEAF.” He laughed at his own joke, ignoring the way Bushroot rolled his eyes. “Unless you’d rather STICK AROUND!”

Bushroot scowled at him. “Do you EVER stop talking?”

“Hmmm…” Quackerjack tilted his head in mock-thought before shrugging. “Who knows? It’s a MYS-TREE to me!”

Bushroot groaned and looked down with a shake of his head. “That one barely even works…”

Their bantering was interrupted by the noisy return of Spot and his passengers. “Woof!”

“Spot?!” Bushroot stared at his pet in shock. “What are you doing?! I told you to get out of here!” The dog-like plant started to bark something at him, but it only seemed to rile him up more. “HE BURNED YOU?!!” Bushroot’s earlier shock turned into rage and he started pulling against the putty holding his arm to the wall.

“Hey, take it easy there, Bush-brain.” Quackerjack let one of the balls drop back into his other hand, preparing to throw it. “Don’t make me-” Whatever he was about to say died on his tongue when he saw the upper half of Bushroot’s trapped arm start to tear and green liquid ooze out. “H-Hey, take it easy! You don’t have to-!”

“!!!” With a pained hiss and a clenching of his teeth, Bushroot tore his own arm off to escape. “Out of my way!” He tried to run past Quackerjack, shoving the shocked clown out of his path with his remaining hand.

Still startled by the plant-duck’s act of self-mutilation, Quackerjack ended up dropping his bat and the remaining red balls he had. Regardless, he caught his balance and tried to grab Bushroot by his more in-tact arm. “Wait a sec-OW!” He winced when his bare hand met the various sizes of thorns on the viney appendage.

“Wha-?!” Bushroot’s anger turned to shock once more as he tried to snatch his arm away. “Are you an idiot?! Don’t touch me!!”

The warning seemed to come too late, though, and Quackerjack started to sway on his feet right as Megavolt finally reached them on Spot’s back. “Quackerjack?!” He jumped down and ran over just in time to catch his partner when he fell over. “Quackerjack!!”

“Sparky..?” Quackerjack wheezed out, his gaze hazy and unfocused. “I..I feel funny- not haha funny…why are you green…?” His eyes began to close and Megavolt felt a surge of dread creep into him.

“H-Hey! Come on, Quackerjack! Stay with me!” He patted the duck’s face a few times in an attempt to wake him up.

“Dang it..!” Bushroot scowled and snapped his leafy fingers at Spot. “Open up!” Spot did as it was asked and kneeled down low to the ground with its mouth wide open. Bushroot then walked over to the pair of heroes and grabbed Quackerjack’s hand to examine the thorns that had broken off into his skin. “We need to get him to my green house.” He tugged Megavolt along roughly by his elbow and pointed at Spot’s mouth. “Put him in there- head first.”

“……” Megavolt looked at the sticky interior of the purple plant, feeling reasonably hesitant about placing his partner in crime-fighting inside of a **_carnivorous_** plant.

“Oh, for the love of-!” Bushroot rubbed his hand over his face in annoyance. “We don’t have time for this! Look, Spot’s insides are sticky, so that’ll keep him from moving around! Plus he can start leeching out some of the toxins and thorns on the way there!” When Megavolt still hesitated, Bushroot snapped at him. “Do you want him to live or not?!!”

Megavolt blinked in surprise at the tone of the other man’s voice.

Yes, it was definitely frustrated, but it was a frustration born of something else…

Worry?

Desperation?

Concern?

Guilt?

He couldn’t tell at the moment, but, as he took one look from the frustrated expression on Bushroot’s face, to Quackerjack in his arms, then finally to the little girl still seated on Spot’s back, he made a decision he felt was the right one in that moment.

“Alright. I trust you.” Megavolt said as he carefully placed his friend into the large plant’s waiting mouth.

“……” Bushroot’s brows knit together for a brief moment at the other’s choice of words, but he ignored it with a shake of his head and reached in with his elongated arm to help settle Quackerjack properly- even making sure that his injured hand was palm-down against the area at the bottom of the plant’s body near a pool of liquid. “Get on.” He commanded with a jerk of his head as he followed his own advice and climbed on top of Spot.

Megavolt did as requested after grabbing Quackerjack’s bat and took his place from earlier behind the girl to help hold her in place.

The whole time they were riding on Spot’s back, Megavolt quietly prayed that his friend would be okay- that they would get to the greenhouse Bushroot spoke of in time. And that he really was making the right decision…

They reached their destination around sunset, the last of the light dwindling by the time they arrived at the surprisingly well-maintained greenhouse.

Bushroot was the first one to jump off of Spot’s back and he was already motioning for the pitcher plant to open up once again. “We don’t have much time left- carry him inside.” He directed the order to Megavolt once Spot opened its mouth enough for them to retrieve Quackerjack from inside. “Spot, take the girl and, I don’t know, go play with the petunias or something.”

Spot barked happily and ran off with the girl, taking her over to a small patch of dancing flowers just outside of the greenhouse. “Woof!”

Bushroot then led Megavolt inside, the various trees, shrubs, and flowers swaying and reacting to their master’s presence immediately. “Yeah, yeah, hey..” He grumbled as he made his way to an open patch of grass. With a wave of his hand, the patch of grass sprouted new plants that grew surprisingly quickly and smelled strongly of-

“Green tea leaves?” Megavolt questioned while sniffing the air.

“They can help stop bleeding.” Bushroot explained with a waving gesture indicating he wanted Megavolt to set Quackerjack down in the fragrant patch while he busied himself with going to various herbs and flowers around the green house. “Hey, guys..yeah, sorry, I hate to ask this..really? Okay, thanks, I appreciate it.” He went to an equipment locker against one of the walls and pulled out a bottle of water, a bowl, a jar of black powder, a pair of scissors, and, oddly enough, some surgical tubing and alcohol.

In a hurry, he carelessly dropped most of the gathered equipment on the floor, leaving only the bowl and scissors in his hand. As he started going around to the various plants he’d spoken with before, he carefully clipped off different pieces- seed pods, leaves, roots, even whole stalks or flowers- and collecting them in the bowl.

“Is there anything I can do?” Megavolt asked, feeling bad that he was just standing there doing nothing while his friend was dying –heck, even the tea leaves were helping out by removing the thorns still embedded in Quackerjack’s hand!

Bushroot paused a second to think over the question before pointing at the bottle with his scissors, keeping the bowl propped against his torso with his damaged arm. “Heat that up for me.”

Megavolt nodded while Bushroot continued gathering the ingredients he needed. “Got it.” He picked up the bottle and opened it before concentrating a small electrical current into the container. Minding his powers and controlling them could be difficult at times, but he kept his mind focused by reminding himself how important it was not to mess up. “For Quackerjack..” He muttered, closing his eyes and maintaining the current just enough to cause heat but trying not to warp or damage the plastic and spill the liquid inside.

“That’s good enough.” Bushroot’s voice cut through his thoughts and Megavolt opened his eyes to see the plant duck seated beside him on the ground with the bowl of plant parts in his lap. However long he’d been focusing on the bottle had apparently been enough time for Bushroot to chop up the various plants he’d gathered into tiny pieces. “Pour it in.” He instructed while managing to open the jar of black powder and pouring a fair amount of it into the bowl as well.

Megavolt did as he was told and poured the hot water into the bowl with the other ingredients, watching as Bushroot summoned a series of vines that rotated quickly like beaters for a mixer to combine the bowl’s contents accordingly. “What is that stuff anyway?”

“A few aromatic flowers to open up his airway, some herbs to restore any lost nutrients and boost his immune system, and some activated charcoal to absorb the toxins in his bloodstream.” Bushroot explained, checking the consistency of the mixture to make sure it was thin enough before dismissing the vines.

“**_Charcoal_**?” Megavolt questioned disbelievingly at the idea of putting charcoal into someone’s body. “Is that safe??”

“It’s a centuries-old, well-proven method for treating deadly nightshade poisoning.” Bushroot assured him while grabbing the surgical tubing. “Roll up his sleeve so I can find a vein.” Once Megavolt did as the plant-duck asked, Bushroot took the scissors from earlier and used them to cut a small incision into Quackerjack’s arm after finding the proper vein. “Good. Now, hold him still.”

Megavolt moved to the other side of Quackerjack’s unconscious body and held his arms down. “Just hold on a little longer, Quacky..” He said softly, looking down at the duck’s flushed and sweat-dampened feathered face as he remained completely unaware of what was going on around him.

Bushroot carefully inserted one end of the surgical tubing into the open wound, a large leaf-bearing plant sprouting up beside him and curling into the other end of the tube to act as a funnel. “Alright..here goes nothing…” He brought the bowl up to the make-shift funnel and began to pour in the freshly made medicine.

Quackerjack remained still at first…but that didn’t last long.

A few seconds after the mixture began to enter his veins, the duck’s eyes flew open and he stared ahead unseeingly. “!!!!” His mouth opened in a silent scream and he began to thrash against Megavolt’s hold in a panic.

“Quackerjack! Quackerjack, calm down!” Megavolt held his friend down harder, not wanting to hurt him but not being given much choice in the matter.

The silent screaming soon gave way to ACTUAL screaming once Bushroot finished pouring the mixture in. “Just hold him a little longer!” Once the bowl was empty, he tossed it aside and used his hand to hold the tube in place while the last of it entered Quackerjack’s bloodstream.

“Spiders! They’re crawling on me! In my brain! In my veins!” Quackerjack’s screaming began to form words, but they were all nonsense and he seemed deaf to Megavolt’s voice. “Ahahahaha! It tickles! I see it! Rainbows- so many colors! I can taste them! I-!” His eyes rolled back into his head and he gasped sharply before going still again, his eyes shutting.

Megavolt reached up to check the pulse on Quackerjack’s neck, breathing a sigh of relief when he felt the tell-tale thump of a heartbeat beneath his fingertips. “Is he gonna be okay? What **_was_** all that?” He questioned while looking at Bushroot with concern.

Bushroot took a seat and began carefully removing the tube from the clown’s arm. “He’ll be fine. Hallucinations and delirium are common side-effects of solanum carolinense poisoning, but his breathing is stable now and the poison’s moving out of his body thanks to the charcoal.” Once the tube was out, he held out his hand and another leafy plant grew so he could pluck the leaf and wrap it around the spot the tube had just occupied with some tea leaves underneath to help stop the bleeding.

“Good…” Megavolt said simply as they sat there and watched over Quackerjack. Unfortunately, now that the threat to his partner’s life was gone, things felt…awkward. “Um..thanks for helping him-”

“Don’t thank me.” Bushroot replied automatically without even looking at him.

They sat there in a tense silence for a few minutes while Megavolt tried to think of what else he could say.

“Sorry..about blasting Spot..and about your arm-” He began, feeling that would be an appropriate conversation starter.

Apparently Bushroot disagreed, however, because he cut Megavolt off once again. “We’re plants. We’ll heal. It’s fine.”

This was getting painful. Seriously, what do you say to someone you had pegged for a villain after they’ve saved your friend’s life?

“Is there..uh..something we can do to repay yo-” He tried to start another conversation, but was interrupted yet again.

“Just leave.” Bushroot said firmly, finally getting back up to gather his equipment. “And take the girl with you- you two can probably find a better place for her.” He turned away from Megavolt, using the bowl to hold everything he’d used that evening.

“Fine..” Megavolt conceded, carefully picking up Quackerjack’s unconscious body and making his way to the door.

When he was close to the exit, however, he heard Bushroot speak one more time. “He’s gonna feel nauseous when he wakes up- that’s normal. Make sure he stays hydrated, but no ice water or he’ll feel worse. If his fever comes back..just…I don’t know, bring him here or something…”

Megavolt couldn’t help but smile slightly at the plant-duck’s tone of voice. He was trying to come off as cold and clinical, like a doctor giving a diagnosis. But, beneath the harsh exterior and forced neutrality of his tone of voice, Megavolt could hear the genuine worry and caring nature hidden deep down that the odd creature was trying so hard to hide.

“I will. Thanks.” He replied without turning around.

“I told you not to thank-” Bushroot turned to snap at the hero, but it was his turn to be cut off- this time by the closing of the door after the two heroes were already gone.

Finally alone once more in his greenhouse (well, alone aside from his plants, of course), Bushroot allowed himself to heave a sigh, the tension releasing from his hunched shoulders all at once.

He looked oddly relieved..yet..sad…

* * *

The third time they ran into Bushroot was on purpose.

Bushroot was busy tending to his greenhouse when, much to his startled surprise, there was a knock at his front door. “?!” He glared suspiciously at the door, preparing for a fight, when Spot ran up to it and started barking excitedly. “Huh..?” Deciding to investigate, he walked to the door and squinted through the glass to see two very familiar color combinations standing outside. “Ugggh..” He rolled his eyes and opened the door to see a pair of heroes standing there “WHAT?” He asked with a clearly irritated expression, folding his thorned arms over his chest.

“Good to see you too, Bushy.” Quackerjack grinned at the clearly annoyed flower-headed duck, keeping one hand held behind his back. He looked at Bushroot’s arm and his smile softened slightly. “Your arm feeling okay?”

Bushroot spared a glance down at it and shrugged. “It grew back after a couple days.” He glanced over to Quackerjack’s hand- the one that had been pierced by his thorns and was now currently wrapped in bandages. “Your hand…?”

“Like almost-new.” Quackerjack noticed the look of poorly concealed concern and raised the wrapped hand up to wiggle each of the fingers in demonstration. “See?” He pointed his thumb at Megavolt with a childish pout. “The only reason I’m still wearing these is because Sparky here’s a worry-wart.”

“Don’t call me Sparky.” Megavolt replied automatically, but there wasn’t any real annoyance behind his words. “Can we come in for a bit?” He directed his attention back to Bushroot.

Bushroot eyed them skeptically, one brow cocked. “You’re not here to arrest me or something, right?”

“No, but that is part of what we wanted to talk to you about.” Megavolt’s answer was elusive, but his tone was straight-forward and honest- something Bushroot could appreciate.

“Fine..” The perpetually-grumpy plant-duck led them further into the green house. Not having any real furniture (due to not needing any), Bushroot had to wave his hand to summon soft, gigantic flowers for them to sit on- one by itself for him and two across from it for the others. “So..” He began while taking his seat. “What do you want?”

Quackerjack and Megavolt took their seats across from him, Quackerjack being the first one to speak after hiding whatever it was he’d brought in behind his back. “Gee, right to the point. Not even gonna offer us a drink first?” He teased.

“All I’ve got is water and pesticide.” Bushroot responded dryly. “Now, are you gonna tell me why you’re here, or should I just cut to the part where I throw you out?”

Megavolt sighed in mild annoyance and rubbed his eyes under his safety-glasses. “Ignore Quackerjack, he can’t be serious to save his life…literally.”

“Aw, it was one time!” Quackerjack pretended to pout before bursting into a fit of giggles. “Besides, the look on that witch’s face was **_priceless_**!”

Bushroot got the feeling that was supposed to be a pun of some sort, but one that was more situational humor that he wouldn’t understand without a story that he really wasn’t in the mood for. So, instead, he just did a “hurry up” gesture with his hand to move the conversation along.

“We wanted to apologize for how we treated you.” Megavolt began, the frown on his face clearly showing the guilt he felt. “We judged you way too harshly, and we know that you’re not a bad guy now.”

“Yes I am.” Bushroot insisted with a scowl, leaning back in his flower-chair with his arms crossed defiantly. “I’m a poisonous species of plant mutant that can kill anything I touch. I stay out here so I don’t have to deal with the stupid people in town because I HATE everyone. The closest thing I have to ‘friends’ are my plants- plants that **_I_** create and control.”

“Plants like Spot?” Quackerjack questioned with a quirked brow while casting a poignant look in the direction of the large pitcher plant that was currently chasing its own flowery tail in circles. “Because that’s **really** not helping your case, Bushy.”

“He’s a carnivorous plant that can dissolve people with acid if he swallows them.” Bushroot glared at the overly cheerful and sarcastic clown.

Quackerjack smirked at the frustrated plant in amusement. “Funny, I don’t FEEL digested.”

“That can be changed.” Bushroot warned him, growing more frustrated with the clown by the minute. “EASILY.”

“Like I said, ignore him.” Megavolt reached over and lightly smacked Quackerjack on the back of his head before looking at Bushroot with a serious expression again. “And we know you’re not a bad guy. Honestly, I don’t think you ever were, even before..” He gestured to Bushroot’s body as a whole. “THAT.”

Bushroot scowled slightly and looked away, his arms wrapping tighter around himself. “You don’t know anything about me…”

Megavolt frowned, easily able to see through the mutant’s façade now that he knew what to look for. “We know that you’re a better person than you pretend to be. Those guys at the gardening store started the fight with you, but you didn’t kill or seriously injure any of them. You easily could’ve killed US, but you let us live. You didn’t have to pay for the things you took, but you did, even though no one even worked at that store anymore.”

Quackerjack nodded in agreement, finally allowing himself to be slightly more serious. “Not to mention the whole ‘saving my life’ thing.”

“I was the one that poisoned you.” Bushroot tried to retort, but it was half-hearted at best.

“No, I poisoned MYSELF when I grabbed you.” Quackerjack reached behind himself and finally revealed the large but flat box that he’d carried in with him, holding it out towards Bushroot expectantly. “Which reminds me- this is my way of saying thanks.”

Bushroot glared at the box, refusing to touch it. “I don’t want it- I told you not to thank me.”

“Bushroot..” Megavolt cut in before Quackerjack could say something about the plant-duck’s attitude. “Whether you want to admit it or not..you’re a hero. You’re a good person that wants to help others- we can tell. You saved Quackerjack’s life, even though you didn’t have to.”

“I just didn’t want you to come looking for ‘heroic vengeance’ or something..” Bushroot scowled, clearly uncomfortable with being called a ‘hero’.

“And what about the girl?” Megavolt questioned, eyes narrowed behind his glasses.

Bushroot frowned and glared at the floor, not having a comeback for that one. “…….”

Megavolt’s gaze softened slightly as he continued. “She told us everything. About her mother hurting her, about you stepping in and yelling at her mom, and about you **_saving_** her. You didn’t HAVE to do any of that. She was a complete stranger. You could have just ignored it and walked away and nothing would’ve happened-”

“What was I supposed to do?!” Bushroot snapped, finally uncrossing his arms and glaring at them. “Just stand by and do nothing?!”

“Only if you were as cold and mean as you pretend to be.” Quackerjack commented with a smile that was slightly teasing, but mostly just understanding.

Bushroot’s eyes widened and his mouth hung open for a moment when he realized exactly what he’d said. “!!”

Megavolt’s smile matched Quackerjack’s. “You act tough and scary but, deep down, you’re a good man that just wants to help people- like us. The only thing we don’t know is WHY you try to hide it.”

“…‘Why’?” Bushroot asked once his shock turned to frustration once again. “You REALLY wanna know **_why_**?” His leafy hands clenched at his sides, a scowl on his face. “It’s because this world takes ‘good men’, chews them up, and spits them out when they’ve got nothing left to give. I TRIED being a good person. I TRIED helping the world…and look what it got me..” He uncurled one of his hands and looked at it, the anger that had started to creep into his voice slowly being replaced with sadness. “I was a botanist, you know..probably not the best, but I was still good at my job. I was coming up with a way for people to feed off of sunlight and water like plants, thinking that would be a way for me to solve world hunger and get me everything I ever wanted- fame, glory, money…love…but Negaduck’s ‘no plants’ law made being a botanist impossible unless you found a way to make him money or weapons. When he found out about my research, he threatened to close down my whole department. My so called ‘colleagues’ kicked me to the curb without a second thought.” His eyes drifted over to the remains of some long-damaged machinery in the corner of the greenhouse that looked like they once contained a pair of raising platforms. “I figured my life was over anyway, so why not go all-or-nothing? I tried my experiment on myself and..well…” He held his arms out for emphasis. “You can see how well that turned out.” He lowered his arms again to look down at his twisted root-feet. “It was..surprising..but my research ACTUALLY worked! I ran back to show the others and they said that they were..they were actually..**_impressed_** with me…” He choked back a bubble of some sort of emotion on the word “impressed”, unintentionally letting the other two know how much that meant to him. “Rho- I mean, Dr.Dendron, one of my co-workers, asked me to meet with her that night. I thought I was finally getting everything I ever wanted…” The next expression they saw on his face looked…heartbroken. “But..it was all a trap…they went behind my back and called Negaduck. When I went to meet Dr.Dendron, **he** was waiting there instead and he gave me an option: Make an army of plant mutants for him, or let my colleagues dissect me so they could figure out how to do it themselves. I barely escaped with my head…” He shuddered painfully at the memory, wrapping his arms around himself in a subconscious need for safety and comfort. “So..that’s why I’d rather stay out here…why I’d rather make people think that I’m a horrible monster…it’s better than letting them think I’m just another sap they can take advantage of.” He looked back up at them, a bitter frown on his face. “Do you two get it now? Being ‘nice’ or ‘good’ in this world..it’s pointless..you’ll just be a loser in the end…”

Megavolt was silent for a while, absorbing everything Bushroot just told him. With everything he’d said, he could definitely understand why he felt so betrayed and disheartened with the world and its people. But, even still, he had to-

“Boy, do I know how that story goes.” Surprisingly, it was Quackerjack that spoke up first. Both Megavolt and Bushroot looked to see him reclining back as far as his floral seat would allow, the box he’d brought with him sitting in his lap. “You know, I used to work at a toy company.” He began with a wistful smile. “That’s actually where I got the name from- it was called ‘Quackerjack Toys’, and we were one of the biggest toy companies in the world for a while. I was PRETTY high up there on the corporate ladder, too. I tried to be a role model for other big-shots like me and started all sorts of things like orphanages and children’s hospitals and charities. I thought I could use my money to make a difference in the world.” His smile fell slightly, looking much sadder than his usual grins. “But..then Negaduck started to change things in the city…I tried speaking out. I tried rallying people together to stand against him..and he decided to silence me for it. He teamed up with one of my company’s biggest enemies- Whiffle Co. Video Games- and they framed me for embezzlement and grand-larceny. I went to prison because Negaduck had the judge in his pocket and spent years in there..most of it in solitary..” His fingers fidgeted slightly and he brought one of his bells around to the front so he could give his hands something to occupy themselves with. “It was..well…it was terrible, not gonna lie. I kept trying to find a way out, or find a reason why what happened wasn’t so bad, but half the time I just wound up stuck in solitary confinement again. I..went pretty crazy for a while there. I started to hate other people…and hate myself even more. I started to wonder if anything I ever did mattered at all. I mean, I dedicated so much of my life to helping other people, but where were they when **_I_** needed help? There was no one…” His smile lifted slightly after he took a deep breath. “But..then I met someone really sweet while I was there..she helped me out and I decided that I wanted to help other people, too. She tried to talk me out of it- she said I’d spent enough time trying to help others and that I should just worry about myself for a change.” He shook his head with a sad chuckle. “I tried to do what she said, I really did..but..I couldn’t fight it- helping people is just a part of who I am. No matter how mad I get at the world, I feel like I have to try and smile so the rest of the world can learn to smile back.” He looked at Bushroot with an understanding smile, handing him the box again and looking relieved when Bushroot actually took it that time. “So..I get it. This world is really messed up and it makes it hard to be nice sometimes..but I think that’s just a bigger reason to fight bullies like Negaduck even harder- otherwise, they win and that’s the end of it all…and I know I can’t just sit back and let that happen.”

Bushroot looked down at the box in his hands for a while, clearly debating about what to say in response, when both he and Quackerjack were startled by a muffled sniffle. “???” They turned their heads towards the sound and saw Megavolt holding his face in one hand and his safety glasses in the other, his shoulders shaking as if he were…crying?

“Megs?” Quackerjack frowned and placed a hand on the rat’s shoulder. “You okay there, buddy?”

Concern was clear on his face and in his voice, and for good reason: He’d never seen Megavolt **_cry_** before, over ANYTHING. No matter how badly injured he’d seen the electrifying hero, or how dejected he’d looked after a lost fight with Negaduck and his goons, the rodent had stayed as bright as the lightning bolt on his cape.

Now, though, when he removed his hand from his face and looked down at the glasses in his other hand with his glistening shrunken pupils, he looked so..small..and frail…and so, so very tired..

“I…I’m sorry…” Megavolt took a few deep breaths to try calming himself down, but the pained frown remained on his face. “It’s just..when I hear about good people like the two of you that had their lives **_ruined_** by Negaduck, it reminds me of how much I’ve messed up…and…how it’s all **_MY_** fault…”

“Your fault?” Bushroot questioned the miserable rodent. “How the heck is any of that YOUR fault?”

“Because I haven’t been able to stop Negaduck, no matter how many times I’ve tried.” Megavolt’s frown turned bitter, his empty hand clenching into a fist.

Bushroot stared at him in mild surprise. “Wait, wait, back up- you’ve **fought** that psycho before?”

“And on your OWN?” Quackerjack’s look matched Bushroot’s as the pair stared at Megavolt in clear expectation of an answer. The pair of heroes had gone up against Negaduck more than once, sure, but he’d never said anything about previous fights with the chainsaw wielding psychopath from before the two of them had teamed up. Quackerjack sure as heck wouldn’t have tried to do that by himself, even with his questionable sanity!

Megavolt gave a half-hearted smile and rubbed his thumb along the edge of the glasses in his hand. “You guys already told your stories, guess it’s only fair for me to do the same.” He took another deep breath before looking up at them again. “This probably comes as a BIG surprise, but I was pretty much the class nerd back in high school.” He gave a light chuckle at that, one that was echoed by the other two since they were the same way back then. “In my senior year, I was more focused on inventing things than on relationships or dances..so, when it was time for prom, I decided I’d rather spend the time working on my new static generator. It was going to be my big breakthrough in electrical engineering that would help solve the world’s energy crisis! Just think about it- a generator that produces electricity using nothing more than simple kinetic motion and naturally occurring static electricity found in mammals and shag carpeting! It would have reduced the carbon footprint of a city like Saint Canard by at least 40%!” His face had lit up with an excited smile as he described his machine and what it would have been able to do, but he quickly reigned it back in with a slight flush to his cheeks and a clearing of his throat to get back on track. “A-Anyway…some bullies came to make fun of me for ‘hanging out with the wrong kind of electric hottie’ that night and overloaded my machine.” He held up one finger on his free hand and caused a spark of electricity to dance along the tip. “The accident gave me my powers, which was pretty cool, even if it did mess up my hair..and my eyes…and gave me some nasty scars…” He trailed off on that part, subconsciously touching one of his hands with the other. “It was scary..but..also really cool..I spent hours testing out my new powers and figuring out what I could do. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them yet, but I knew I wanted to impress people.” His smile fell into a slight frown. “Then…I heard the screaming..” He shuddered, drawing his arms in closer to himself. “I went to the gym where they were holding prom…and I saw Negaduck attacking my classmates.”

“!!!!” Both ducks stared at him with equal levels of shock, experiencing the same revelation of just HOW LONG Megavolt had been fighting against Negaduck **_by himself_**.

“I didn’t really know what I was doing.” Megavolt continued, sparks flickering around his fingertips as he remembered that night so clearly, even after all these years. “I’d only just gotten my powers..but..I had to do SOMETHING, right? After all, I-I was the only one that **_could_**, so I fought him off while everyone else tried to escape.” He set his glasses down in his lap and started to remove his gloves. “But…he still won..” With the gloves removed, he held up his hands to give the other two a clear view of his injuries: A jagged gash that lined up perfectly across both palms, two-thirds of his right pinky finger missing, and a nasty split between his left pointer and middle finger that had long since scabbed over but was clearly never stitched back together properly. “I barely escaped in one piece and Negaduck still managed to send half of my senior class to the hospital with serious injuries, but at least I kept him from actually..well, you know..” Megavolt sighed heavily while putting his gloves back on. “I gave everything I could to beat him and I **_still_** came up short…and when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING.” With his gloves back on, he reached up and gave his head a light tap. “Turns out using too much electricity messes with the electrical field around my brain, causing all sorts of memory problems. After the fight, I forgot where I lived and I even forgot who I was for a few months. I haven’t seen my family in over twenty years and I hardly remember what they even **_look like_** anymore..but..that’s probably for the best- if Negaduck found out who I was, he’d definitely go after them to get to me..and I don’t want anyone else getting hurt because of me..” He looked at his hands, that earlier look of pain and guilt on his face returning once again. “But..it seems like no matter what I do, there are people who still get hurt because of Negaduck: Poor people who don’t have the money to pay off Negaduck’s goons. Sick people dying in the streets because of the pollution he forces into the air. Children that had to grow up never knowing the feeling of sunlight and fresh air. Guys like you who were just trying to live your lives and make the world a better place until HE came along and ruined everything for you…” The last comment was directed at the other two with a sad, apologetic half-smile before he looked back down at the safety glasses in his lap. “Sometimes I wonder if these powers should’ve gone to someone else. That, maybe if someone smarter, or stronger, or braver had them, then Negaduck would’ve been stopped years ago..before he had the chance to ruin so many people’s lives. But…it’s just me. I’m the one who has the power, so I’m the one that has to do something.” He finally put his glasses back on for the first time since he started his story, taking one last deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I know there’s not much I can do on my own, and I’m probably insane for not giving up yet..but, if I don’t do something, then I feel like no one else will. It HAS to be me. This town needs a hero to save it, and, even if I have to sacrifice everything I am, I’ll be the one to save it one day.”

A light slap to the back of the hero’s head made the ending of his monologue fall flat and he turned in confusion to look at his colorful companion. “Geez, listen to this guy, would ya, Bushy? Getting all over-dramatic and junk- honestly makes me wish I had some popcorn and a soda.” Quackerjack offered Megavolt a sympathetic smile and moved his hand down so it could rest on the rat’s shoulder. “Would you quit with the lone-hero routine already? In case you haven’t noticed, you’re not the only superhero in this greenhouse!”

Megavolt had the decency to look embarrassed at that comment, rubbing the back of his head and glancing away. “O-Oh. Right. Sorry, that really isn’t fair to you two, huh?”

“Why are you bringing ME into this?” Bushroot asked with a frown that was trying to show irritation, but just came off as confused. “I’m no hero.”

“Yes, you are.” Megavolt returned his attention to the plant mutant with a confidant and kind smile. “You can fight it all you want, but, deep down, there’s a full-fledged hero waiting to bloom- all you have to do is let him out.” He stood up, smiling down at the still seated ex-botanist, and placed a hand on his shoulder (careful to avoid the thorns, of course). “We won’t force you into anything, but we just wanted you to know that we understand how hard it is trying to be a good person in this world, and, if you ever want to help make a difference in this town, or just want someone to talk to, you can come find us- we’ll have your back, no matter what.”

Quackerjack stood as well, giving Bushroot a grin of his own accompanied with a wink. “You can keep the gift no matter what you choose, by the way- it’s my way of saying thanks.” Quackerjack turned towards the door and walked out, petting Spot along the way. “We’ll show ourselves out- don’t wanna wear out our welcome, so we’ll be taking our LEAF now.” He chuckled at his own pun, grinning even when Megavolt shoved him out the door for it.

The pair of heroes waved a final farewell over their shoulders to Bushroot and did as Quackerjack said and took their leave (no, Megavolt wouldn’t let him get away with the pun twice, even if it did make him chuckle under his breath).

Bushroot sat there for a long time after they left, silently thinking over their parting words to him.

After a while, his curiosity finally got the better of him and he opened the box that Quackerjack gave him. Inside, he saw dark fabric that was mainly two colors- extremely dark brown and a slightly less dark green. He squeezed the green part with his thin “fingers”, feeling how thick the padding was for the green parts.

Staring intently at the fabric, Bushroot frowned and set the box down on the ground, stubbornly crossing his arms and looking away from it. “Couple of sentimental fools full of more sap than a maple tree…”

Still, despite his words, his eyes ended up being drawn back towards the fabric…

* * *

A few days later, Quackerjack and Megavolt were locked in a fierce battle against an old foe they’d bested before: Morgana Macawber, the sorceress of St.Canard.

The dark and demented duck was a towering witch of a woman with long, curly dark hair streaked with red highlights. What would normally be an imposing figure thanks to her tall stature, beautiful face, and glowing magical aura, was slightly diminished by the fact that she was wearing a red sweet-lolita style dress with a long, puffy skirt accented with white lace along with a matching head piece, white stockings, and red shoes with more lace around the buckles. All-in-all, it was an…interesting set of contradictions that certainly showed in her personality when she spoke.

“I have you this time, foolish heroes!” Morgana giggled with twisted glee as she floated in the air in front of the roughed-up pair of heroes. “You two will be the PERFECT gifts for my beloved Lord Negaduck!”

Quackerjack picked up his bat from where it had been knocked out of his hands on the ground and used it to help hoist his battered body back up to its feet. “Yeeeaah, no thanks- I’d rather not become one of your creepy chocolate-covered valentine gifts…” He glanced at the various people around the town square that had been immobilized and frozen solid by different flavors and colors of chocolate.

“That goes double for me..” Megavolt pulled himself up as well with Quackerjack’s help. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he’s gay…”

“No he’s not!” Morgana stamped her foot in the air like a petulant child.

“Gotta go with Megs on this one.” Quackerjack chuckled at the sorceress’s immature temper tantrum, ignoring their impending doom in favor of teasing her a bit more. “Kinda hard to say he’s **_not_** after all the times he’s grabbed that big bodyguard of his and shoved his tongue down his-”

“SHUT UP!!” Morgana screamed and blasted the pair of already injured heroes with a burst of red magic. “My sweet Lord Negaduck loves me! He does! He just doesn’t know it yet!” She continued blasting them, hitting them again anytime they started to get close to the ground to keep them airborne. “We’re perfect for each other! You’ll see! EVERYONE WILL SEE! I’ll get rid of you two and then he’ll see that **_I’m_** the better partner- not that smelly brute **_Launchpad_**!” She hit them with one more powerful blast, leaving them prone and injured on the ground of what was once a thriving park but was now filled with nothing but dirt and dead trees. “Now..” She glared at them and her whole body glowed with a menacing red aura as she prepared to finish them off. “Say goodbye, heroes!!”

“Alright.” A voice that definitely didn’t belong to either of them spoke up. “Goodbye.”

Before Morgana had a chance to find out where the voice was coming from, she suddenly found herself being tied up by a patch of living daisies that sprung to life beneath her, seemingly out of nowhere. “What?! Let go of me! Grrr, stupid flowers!!” She struggled against the surprisingly strong flowers as they dragged her down towards the ground.

When Quackerjack and Megavolt had the strength to lift their heads again, they saw someone wearing a dark brown coat with puffy dark green sleeves standing in front of them- the image of a purple flower with a yellow center on the coat’s back matching that of its wearer’s head perfectly. The person wearing the coat had his back turned to them with his hands in the coat’s pockets, but they instantly knew who it was.

“Bushroot?!” They said at the same time with equally mixed feelings of surprise and relief.

Bushroot looked back at them over his shoulder, eyeing them up and down with a neutral expression. “Wow..you guys look like fertilizer right now.” He looked back to the struggling sorceress calmly. “Why don’t you two take a breather- I’ve got this one.” He took one hand out of his pockets and waved it back in their direction, causing a variety of fragrant plants such as lavender, peppermint, rosemary, and green tea leaves to sprout beneath the injured heroes and begin wrapping around them- secreting oils to help heal and soothe their wounds.

By the time he’d turned back to Morgana, the sorceress had managed to free herself from the debilitating daisies and was kneeling in the dirt. She got to her feet and looked at her dirtied dress with an angry expression. “Ooooh..you’ll pay for that, you overgrown weed!!”

Bushroot took both hands out of his pockets and did a slow clapping gesture that didn’t produce much sound. “Wooooow.” He said sarcastically. “You just won the award for the most UN-original insult I’ve ever heard. Seriously, like I haven’t been called a weed a million times already.” He walked towards her with no hesitation or fear visible anywhere in his voice or in his body language. “Besides, I technically AM a weed, so it’s not even that much of an insult, it’s just a fact. That’s like calling YOU a duck- it’s not really an insult..well, unless you’re trying to say it’s an insult to BE one, in which case, **_wow_**, that’s just racist and you DESERVE to go to jail just for saying that.”

“W..What..?” By the end of his comeback, Bushroot had reached a now very confused Morgana who just stared at him, unsure of what else to say.

“Here, let me give you the shorter version-” Bushroot stretched his torso so that he could look the sorceress in the eyes and smirk at her properly. “You’re an idiot.”

Capitalizing on the witch’s confusion, Bushroot had one of his legs detangle and grabbed her by the foot while she was distracted. He then latched onto the ground with his other foot and spun around in a circle, sending the startled sorceress flying when he let her go.

“!!!” Morgana’s eyes widened as she was sent careening through the air, trying to regain some control of her magic.

Not giving her a moment to catch herself, though, Bushroot brought his leafy digits to his mouth and whistled, making one of the nearby nearly-dead trees come to life and reel back one branch before slamming it right into Morgana’s head like a baseball bat. This rendered the Lolita-themed lady unconscious and sent her sprawling into the dirt below.

With the source of the curse unconscious, the people who had previously been frozen were suddenly granted their freedom and began to move around again. They were left sticky and stained from the quickly melting confection that had imprisoned them, but no worse for wear.

Speaking of no worse for wear, Quackerjack and Megavolt had watched the whole scene with their jaws dropped. Bushroot made beating one of the most magical ducks in the world look like child’s play!

Bushroot walked back over to the slightly less injured heroes and offered them each a hand up. “You guys just gonna sit there all day or actually pick your jaws and butts up off the ground?”

Quackerjack grinned and grabbed the offered appendage to pull himself up. “Considering you already saved these butts, guess we should do something with ‘em, huh?”

Megavolt pulled himself up next, giving Bushroot an equally big smile. “You really saved us, Bushroot- we owe you one!”

Bushroot let go of their hands and shoved his own digits back into his pockets. “Eh, don’t worry about it. I was just in the area and thought I’d lend a leaf.”

“You _just happened_ to be in the area around the same time we were fighting a super villain?” Quackerjack asked with a cocked brow and a knowing grin.

“Yeah. That’s right.” Bushroot avoided eye contact with the grinning clown in a desperate ploy to appear aloof and uncaring, but, when he glanced back over, he saw that Megavolt was giving him the exact same grin. “**_What_**?” He glared at them, but they could easily tell how half-hearted it really was.

“Just glad to see you finally came around and decided to join us, Bushy.” Quackerjack teased while looping one arm around Bushroot’s shoulders,

“Welcome to the team!” Megavolt said while looping his own arm around Bushroot’s- the padding on the sleeve preventing the thorns from harming him at all.

Bushroot sputtered for a bit, looking between the grinning heroes with an expression of disbelief on his face. “Wh-Wha-?! I didn’t-! Who said-! I-!” He tried to shake and shove them off with an annoyed grunt. “I never said I was joining your stupid team! I told you before- I’m not a hero!”

“Scoreboard says otherwise, Bushy.” Quackerjack gave him that same infuriating grin that made Bushroot scowl at him.

“He’s right, you know.” Bushroot turned his head to the other side to look at Megavolt- the rat giving him a much kinder smile than his partner was. “You’re our hero, Bushroot..and we’d be happy to have you on our team.”

It was hard to tell with his pigmentation, but it looked like Bushroot’s cheeks turned a shade darker when he looked down to avoid seeing either of their faces. “Hmph..sappy idiots- both of you.” He tucked his hands back into his pockets, but didn’t try to shake off their grip on him like last time. “I’m not a hero, no matter what you two try to say.” He paused for a moment, only continuing when they looked ready to argue with him. “**_But_**..” He looked back up with the corners of his beak lifted in a half-smirk half-smile as he glanced between them. “You two would probably get yourselves killed without me, so I guess I’ll stick around to keep you out of trouble.”

Quackerjack and Megavolt stared at him for a minute, stunned into surprised silence from seeing a rare smile on the moody plant-duck’s face.

Then they grinned and cheered, celebrating their team’s newest member (even if he denied it), and jokingly started coming up with names for their little group- Bushroot giving Quackerjack an annoyed roll of his eyes but an undeniably fond smile whenever he tried coming back to the name “Thunderous Threesome” and saying it somehow sounded inappropriate.

Despite everything he said to the contrary, the reluctant smile on Bushroot’s face told his new friends exactly how happy he was to be there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warned you guys that one would be long. Heads up, the next one’s gonna be about as long as this one ^^”
> 
> By the way, for Morgana’s design in this, I decided that since her original version was based off of the Bride of Frankenstein with some influences from Dracula’s brides (and a little Morticia Adams), that the horror movie inspiration for her Negaverse-version would be Claudia and her Lolita style from Interview With a Vampire. I liked the idea of trying to appear sweet (here’s an image reference for the [sort of outfit](https://www.my-lolita-dress.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/650x/040ec09b1e35df139433887a97daa66f/d/r/dream-in-the-cage-sweet-lolita-op-jsk-2.jpg) I saw Morgana wearing but with red shoes) while actually being an adult and her flipping back and forth between childish tantrums and psychotic obsessions. Also, it should be obvious, but I also based parts of her personality off of the classic yandere style characters from a few Japanese anime and games.
> 
> Oh, and Spot is essentially this universe’s version of Spike, and he’s based off of [pitcher plants](http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150420-the-giant-plants-that-eat-meat), another type of carnivorous plant like venus flytraps. In particular, I based the design off of [Australian pitcher plants](https://carnivorousplantresource.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Cephalotus-follicularis.jpg) because I thought the vibrant purple color would coordinate with Bushroot’s purple petals nicely.


	3. Liquidator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Investigating some disappearances along the coast lead the Terrific Trio to a life-or-death battle against the forces of the sea. Thankfully for Megavolt, Quackerjack, and Bushroot, the sea seems to be on their side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter of this installment and, as promised, it’s gonna be another long one. Hope everyone enjoys it!
> 
> Also, if you do enjoy it and have an account on Tumblr, I would really appreciate a reblog on there, as it seems that my stories don't always show up correctly in the tags. Thanks! =^.^=
> 
> Reblog Link: [Psychosistr Friendly Four Story](https://psychosistr.tumblr.com/post/188986649581/friendly-four-verse-meetings-part-1-megavolt)

The Liquidator was the last to join their little rag-tag group of heroes, but he left the biggest impact. Saving the whole city tended to do that…

There had been reports of ships going missing on their way to St.Canard for weeks now, as well as a string of missing people from the bay and the beach itself. Sadly, one or two missing ships and an occasional missing person’s report were common place in a city so rampant with crime- but the current wave was reaching unprecedented levels.

Determined to get to the bottom of the strange spiriting away at sea, the trio of heroes (duo plus one, Bushroot still tried to insist) arrived at the beach to do some investigating. Unfortunately, Megavolt’s glaring weakness was making things more than a little difficult.

“Oh for the love of-! Would you get away from the water already?!” Bushroot shouted before stretching his long arm several feet over to where Megavolt was standing dangerously close to the incoming tide. He grabbed the electric-powered hero and physically dragged him back to the much drier sand. “Are you actually TRYING to short out?!”

“Sorry..” Megavolt at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed as he rubbed at the back of his short-haired head before pointing at the spot he’d just occupied. “But I think I found something!”

“We’ve been over this, Sparky.” Bushroot sounded an awful lot like a parent lecturing a child that had ignored them several times already. “It’s too dangerous for you to get wet. If you see something, just get me or Quackerjack to take a look at-” He stopped suddenly and looked around with a scowl. “Wait..where’s Quackerjack?” He spotted the brightly colored clown in question further out in the water with a pink snorkeling set on as he looked beneath the waves. “You two are seriously going to be the death of me..” Bushroot grumbled before stretching both his torso and arms far enough to physically reach the snorkeling jester and drag him back to dry land. “Having fun?” He asked in a voice dripping with dry sarcasm.

Quackerjack answered the sarcasm with a bright smile and a nod. “Yeee-p.” He replied jovially, even popping the P at the end of the word for added effect. “Lots of neat fish out there!” The way he grinned made it hard to tell if he was seriously that childish or if he was just playing it up to further agitate the other duck.

Bushroot let Quackerjack go and rubbed at his temples with his leafy fingers, taking a moment to close his eyes and collect himself. “How the heck you two got anything done before I came along is a mystery…” He exhaled a long-suffering sigh before opening his eyes and looking at his companions (he refused to say partners or friends yet) again. “So, have you guys actually FOUND anything?”

“Well, the fish are busy stockpiling weapons for their rebel army.” The words that left Quackerjack’s mouth were said with the same amount of seriousness he said almost everything with…which was hardly any and sometimes made it hard to tell whether he was joking or not.

“What, did they tell you that?” Bushroot asked with a roll of his eyes.

“No, don’t be silly, Bushy.” Quackerjack said with a chuckle. “Fish can’t talk!” He reached into the pouch on his belt and pulled out a tin of fish bait. “I bribed ‘em with some treats and they showed me their weapons’ cache. The rest was just pantomiming, but I got the gist of it- something about an evil queen about to wage war on the city or something.”

Bushroot opted to ignore Quackerjack’s explanation and instead turned to Megavolt as if to pretend Quackerjack hadn’t said anything at all. “Did YOU find anything, Sparky?”

“Don’t call me Sparky.” Came the automatic reply before Megavolt pointed back to where he’d been standing earlier. “And yeah, I found this weird chunk of yellow stuff in the water over there.”

“Yellow stuff? Great, maybe it’s poisonous…” Bushroot, feeling once again like the responsible parent trying to look after two overly active kids, walked over to the spot in question and looked around for the “yellow stuff” that Megavolt had described. He found it quick enough, and was actually surprised when he reached into the water to pick it up. “Huh?” His hand pulled out an odd cube of something yellow and rubbery. It was shiny like plastic, but squishier like silicon or rubber- almost reminding him of lemon gelatin. What was REALLY surprising, though, was that it had a strand of seaweed passing through the middle of it, like it had formed around the seaweed and inadvertently severed it from its source. “What the heck is this stuff?”

“Uh, Bushy, I think we’ve got **_BIGGER_** things to worry about!” Quackerjack’s urgent tone of voice caught Bushroot’s attention, making him turn to see the jester pointing out to sea. “**A LOT BIGGER!**”

He was about to ask what the other meant, but then he saw what the other duck was pointing at and his eyes widened in alarm before his head hung low and he face-palmed into his waiting leaves. “You have GOT to be kidding me.” Before he could once again dwell on and lament his life choices, he was being dragged away at a brisk pace by Quackerjack and Megavolt’s now-too-familiar grip on his sleeves.

Finally getting his feet under him to run with the other two, Bushroot glanced back briefly to see the source of danger they were currently fleeing from:

A giant **_tsunami-sized_** wave of water.

Thanks to Bushroot wrapping his arms around the other two and Quackerjack pulling out his bat (they didn’t see where from- seriously, where did he keep that thing??), they managed to get away from the beach by jumping up into the air, flying away using the bat’s rockets, then using Bushroot’s unraveling feet and Megavolt’s magnetic abilities to latch onto one of the taller buildings further in-land and quickly scale their way to the top before the wave hit.

The building was tall enough to avoid the harsher force of the wave, but the wind and pressure generated was still strong enough to send someone flying. To avoid being separated, Bushroot wound his arms tighter around his friends and unraveled his legs in order to weave them around the metallic railing along the top of the building.

“What the heck?!” Quackerjack shouted over the roar of the wind and water around them while clinging to Bushroot. “Since when is Audobon Bay a tsunami-zone?!”

“It’s not!” Megavolt shouted back to him. “Something must have triggered it! Something like-”

“An army of whales?!” Bushroot asked in an alarmed tone of voice.

“Yeah! Something like that would do it!” Megavolt nodded in agreement.

“Something like that DID do it!” Bushroot inclined his head back out towards the ocean when the first wave began to recede. “Look!”

Megavolt and Quackerjack looked back out towards the ocean as Bushroot instructed and saw, to their surprise, a literal army of whales (sperm whales, to be precise) lining the horizon- all of them decorated with military-like badges and uniform sashes made of common sea-fare such as seashells, kelp, and coral. Seated atop what could be described as the lead-whale due to its extra adornments, was what appeared to be a throne made out of coral.

When the wind and air-pressure died down, Bushroot let the others go and re-formed his feet so they could all walk to the edge of the building and get a better look at the creatures that caused the sudden tsunami.

To help get a better view, Quackerjack reached into his toy pouch and pulled out a glittery pink kaleidoscope. Peeking through it, he twisted and adjusted the view until he could see far enough and gave an impressed whistle. “So THAT’S the evil queen the fish were talking about..gotta say, she definitely fits the bill..”

He handed the unassuming toy to Megavolt so he too could get a look at the coral throne and the person occupying it. When he looked through, he was momentarily impressed to find that, while it still had the shifting rainbow edge of a typical kaleidoscope’s view, the toy also doubled as a powerful telescope that gave a perfect view of its target.

Megavolt saw what could only be described as a female fish mutant sitting on the whale’s back. She was short in stature, but the chipped trident she carried and the various scars and torn fins on her body, along with her dark scales and ripped black body-suit, gave the accurate impression that she was a lot stronger than she looked. “An evil fish queen..that’s definitely a new one for the villain-list..” He said mostly to himself while handing the kaleidoscope off to Bushroot.

Bushroot looked over their enemy-of-the-day as well. “Wow, that’s something you don’t see every day.”

Quackerjack took back the kaleidoscope once Bushroot was done with it. “What, a fish mutant leading an army of whales?”

“No,” Bushroot didn’t even bother looking at him when he handed the toy over to the jester. “You being right about something.”

The duck-duo spared each other a smirk while side-eyeing one another, the healthy dose of sarcastic humor helping to alleviate stress in life-threatening situations for them.

Before Megavolt could tell them to stop joking around, the sound of a loud, bellowing horn brought their attention back to the ocean and the looming threat of the whale army ready to drown the city.

“People of the surface, I am Neptunia- Queen of the Seas!” The fish-mutant had a large conch shell set up in front of her, serving as a megaphone to broadcast her surprisingly regal voice out to the entire city. “For too long the creatures of the deep have suffered under your wasteful ways- polluting our waters with your trash and chemicals, stealing our citizens and resources for food and decoration- but no more!” She held her trident aloft in the air, the army of whales bellowing in response. “Now WE will be the ones on top while YOU suffer below us!!” She then leaned closer to the shell and blew into it, the same bellowing horn sound ringing through the air once again.

At her command, the whales turned around so their tail-ends were facing the city, raised them high into the air, then slammed them down into the water in unison. The resulting impact sent another tsunami-like wave rushing towards the city, driving the heroes into action.

Megavolt looked down at the streets where the people who survived the first wave’s assault were still stranded or injured in the water. “Quackerjack, help me get the civilians to safety! Bushroot, see if you can block off the water somehow!”

“On it!” The other two heroes shouted at the same time before all three of them jumped off the side of the building together.

Bushroot used his long-reaching limbs to grab onto and swing across a series of street lamps and building ledges. As he moved through the air, he reached into one of the pockets on his coat and pulled out a handful of seeds, tossing them down to the ground as he went. “A few philodendrons..some Chinese evergreens…English ivy…and some cork and oak trees for good measure..” With a wave of his hand, the plants began to grow and sprout up at an impressively fast-rate. The trees took root deep in the ground below while the ivy and more hydroponically inclined plants wove around them to help form a make-shift barricade. “Good thing there’s plenty of fresh water already.” Bushroot said as he finished planting the natural barrier.

Meanwhile, Megavolt used his magnetized boots to skate along the sides of buildings and any powerlines that weren’t already destroyed. “Get on top of the cars!” He called over the panicked screams of the people around him as he ran.

The citizens scrambled to do as they were instructed and got on top of any vehicles they could find. Once the majority of them were in position, Megavolt concentrated his electricity and magnetism based powers into his hands and aimed them at the vehicles. The resulting blasts of yellow and blue caused the cars to thrum to live and drive forward on their own. Megavolt controlled their direction with his magnetism and made the cars drive in a straight line towards a free-way ramp.

As the cars got up onto the ramp, Quackerjack was waiting on standby to grab the people off the top and take them to safety. To this end, he’d set up a large area of what appeared to be silly-putty by the base of the tallest flat-topped buildings in the area and had secured himself, as well as a small army of moving teddy-bears, to the roof with a brightly colored rainbow of bungee-chords.

“Alright, boys!” Quackerjack called out to his small, fluffy army. “Remember- the floor is lava, so let’s hurry before this situation gets any hotter!” And with that he leapt from the top of the building to grab the first group of people that arrived on top of the cars, flanked closely by his teddy bear army.

Quackerjack began a pattern with his fuzzy friends of leaping down, grabbing people off the top of the cars alongside his bears, taking them up to the roof, letting go while the silly-putty bounced the cars away to make room for the next group, and repeating the process again once the next vehicle got close enough and leaping over to clip their bungee-chords to the top of the next building when the top of one got too full. The unusual system worked surprisingly well, the plant barricade that Bushroot set up helping to deter the water long enough for Megavolt to guide the vehicles over to Quackerjack so he could get them up high enough to avoid the rising water levels.

It wasn’t until the last vehicles was being unloaded that a problem began to present itself.

Said problem was more waves being sent towards the city. Apparently the fish queen had taken notice of their meddling and changed up her strategy. The whales were now staggering their attacks, resulting in waves that were less intense in size, but much more numerous.

The repeated barrage wore away at Bushroot’s plant-wall and began to create gaps that he rushed to fix, but were growing more numerous by the second. “Could you two hurry it up a little?!”

“We’re going as fast as we can!” Megavolt shouted back to him while guiding the last car towards Quackerjack.

Right on time, Quackerjack and his bears jumped down to grab the final group of people just as a particularly powerful torrent ripped a sizable hole in the natural barrier that had kept it at bay. The resulting surge of water that flooded in through the opening began to quickly submerge the surrounding area.

Quackerjack had been in the middle of grabbing a woman off the top of the car when the waves of water suddenly hit. “Hold on- this ride’s gonna get a little wet an’ wild!” He said to the woman while holding onto her tightly.

The water got to them before the bungee cord could get them back up to the roof. The stretchy cord kept them from being swept away, though, and Quackerjack tried to pull both of them back towards the building. The current proved too strong, however, and the hero and his charge ended up getting buffeted by the waves and slowly dragged under.

“Quackerjack!” Megavolt raced along any available metal surfaces and wires to get to his comrade, Bushroot not far behind. “Hold on, we’re-!”

His exclamation changed into a surprised gasp when a torrent of water suddenly rushed beneath Quackerjack and the woman in his arms. It submerged them briefly before crashing back towards the building, going against the current and racing up the side of it in an odd, rolling motion. It splashed over the edge of the building and deposited the pair along the edge safely where they coughed up any water that had gotten into their lungs before the water receded back down into the rest of the flood below.

The other two heroes were momentarily stunned by the odd wave that had washed Quackerjack back to safety, but they soon recovered and joined him up on the roof with the other civilians.

“You still breathing, clown?” Bushroot asked with an air of indifference that most would consider rude, but the other two were well-aware by now that it was just his way of hiding his concern.

“Yeah..” Quackerjack spit out some sea water that had gotten in his mouth and shook his head to get the water out of his cowl. “Don’t think I swallowed too many fish..” He got to his feet with Bushroot’s help (Megavolt tried to offer him a hand up first, but Bushroot beat him to it with a stern look to remind him that shocking both himself and Quackerjack wouldn’t do anybody any good). “Hey, you guys might think I’m crazy-”

“Bit late for that.” Bushroot said without missing a beat.

Quackerjack rolled his eyes briefly but continued. “-but I’m pretty sure I saw a face in that water just now.”

“A face?” Megavolt repeated with a confused expression. “You sure it wasn’t just the lack of oxygen messing with your vision?”

“Maybe..” Quackerjack shrugged, looking down at the water with a thoughtful expression. “But I’m PRETTY sure it was real…”

Bushroot clapped his leafy hands together, the rustling sound getting the other heroes’ attention. “We can discuss Quackerjack’s growing need for therapy later. Right now, we need to focus on stopping those whales before the little mermaid out there decides to turn the next state over into beach-front property. Any ideas?”

Megavolt looked back out at the sea and their current enemy while weighing their options. “If I can get close enough, then one good zap should knock her out. The only problem is GETTING to her without shorting out.” He looked back to Quackerjack with a quirked brow. “This might be a shot in the dark, but do you have any giant pool noodles or surf boards or something?”

Quackerjack tilted his head back and forth as he thought the question over. “Hmmmmmmmm…no, I don’t think so..” He suddenly snapped his fingers. “But I think I’ve got something else that’ll do the trick!” The jester reached into his toy pouch and pulled out-

“A rubber ducky?” Bushroot asked with a deadpan stare at the grinning clown.

Quackerjack squeaked the small yellow rubber duck in front of Bushroot’s face as if to confirm his assessment. “An **_all-purpose_** rubber ducky, thank you very much!” He gave the duck a firmer squeeze and it began to rapidly inflate into a rubber raft with a proportionately big head on the front. “All aboard the S.S.Bath-Time!” Quackerjack said with a grin.

Megavolt just chuckled at the toy maker’s usual enthusiasm while Bushroot shook his head with a barely restrained smile. “Quackerjack, you’re a genius!”

“Tell me something I DON’T know, sparky.” Quackerjack replied with a wink.

* * *

Soon the trio of heroes were riding over the turbulent waves with ease thanks to Quackerjack’s surprisingly sturdy rubber raft. He’d given a brief explanation about counter-balancing weights and a solar powered turbine, but it had been too hard to hear him over the loud whale songs and crashing waves (though Megavolt made a mental note to try asking him about that engine later- they’d have to compare notes sometime).

They’d almost reached the whale the queen was on when something reached up from within the water’s depths and smacked them away. “!!!!” They all shouted in surprise and clung to the raft, looking up to see a pair of giant tentacles flailing about above the water now.

“Oh, great..” Quackerjack said once the raft had reasonably settled again. “A twenty-foot tall calamari buffet and we don’t have ANY dipping sauce.”

Bushroot shook the water out of his petals and glared at the squid that decided to show the rest of its body that had been hidden below the waves. “I think I’d be fine with some sashimi right about now…”

The giant squid glared down at them and tried striking their boat again. Its actions gained the queen’s attention and she looked over to them from her throne with a mildly irritated expression. “You look like the rude peasants that stopped my waves.” She jumped from the back of her whale onto the backs of a few others until she reached the squid and landed on its head. “So, what brings you all the way out here, if I may ask? Come to surrender?”

“Other way around, villain!” Megavolt said while pointing a charged finger in her direction. “We’re gonna give you one chance to call off your army before we send you back down where you came from!”

Neptunia let out a loud laugh, leaning against the side of the squid’s head. “Ha! These locals ARE amusing, wouldn’t you agree, Sebastian?” Her laughter was gone in an instant, turning instead to an icy glare as she pointed her trident down at them. “Now then, darlings, I will give YOU one chance to get your little dingy out of here before my men decide they want duck and rat kebobs with a side salad.”

“Wow, I’ve been upgraded from a weed to a salad- what an honor.” Bushroot said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes as he stood up and prepared to fight.

“I know, right!” Quackerjack chuckled while standing up as well. “Before you know it, you’ll be treated as a full-fledged main course, Bushy!”

“If you guys don’t stop with the food jokes, you’re gonna make me hungry.” Megavolt complained as he stood alongside his comrades with a crack of his knuckles. “We can make one more seafood or fried fish joke, but then that’s it for the food quips, okay?” He adjusted his safety glasses and held out one hand. “Now, let’s take down this deep-sea deviant!”

“Just try not to earn your sea legs today, alright?” Bushroot said while grabbing Megavolt’s hand. At a nod from Megavolt, Bushroot swung him back before launching him off towards Neptunia.

Megavolt landed next to the fish-mutant on top of the giant squid and tried to hit her with an electrically charged fist. The fearsome fish, however, was much more agile than one would assume, and jumped over his attack to counter with a smack using the blunt end of her trident.

While their third member did battle with the sea-queen, Bushroot and Quackerjack took the boat around and began attacking the whales. Bushroot handled the steering at the boat’s rudder while Quackerjack lobbed his exploding red dodgeballs at the tail fins of any whales they passed. Just like during his fight with Bushroot, the balls burst when they hit their targets and covered them in a squishy but sticky red putty that caught on anything they came in contact with- including each other.

As Bushroot saw the whales struggle to get free from each other, he couldn’t help but shake his head slightly in sympathy. “That won’t work unless you can rip your own body parts off- trust me, I know.”

“Good thing we’re not fighting lizard people again!” Quackerjack chuckled while pulling new exploding dodgeballs out of his toy pouch, activating and then throwing them in a steady pattern.

Meanwhile, Megavolt was having more than a little trouble beating the surprisingly strong fish woman. In addition to having the home-field advantage of the squid constantly catching her every time he managed to knock her off-balance, she was also incredibly strong for her size and could easily lift him whenever she got a good hold on him. Add to that the fact that there wasn’t anything metallic for him to grab onto, and one could see why exactly Megavolt was struggling with the fish queen.

He felt like he’d finally caught a lucky break, however, when he managed to grab her arm. “Time for some extra-crispy fried fish!” He channeled what he thought was an appropriate amount of electricity into his hand and experienced a brief moment of elation when his amphibious attacker suddenly went limp…an extremely brief moment, it turns out, as she soon turned the tables on him by grabbing his arm in return. “Huh?!”

She looked up at him with a smirk. “Sorry, darling, but I’ve received better shocks from electric eels.” She used her grip on his arm to suddenly lift him up and toss him towards the water a few miles away. “Why don’t you go ask them for some lessons?!”

“MEGAVOLT!” He heard Quackerjack and Bushroot calling his name in alarm, and even caught a glimpse of them racing towards him on their boat in the distance.

They were too far away, though, he realized with a growing sense of panic. There was nothing for him to grab onto, no way they could reach him in time- just him and the vast ocean that would soon be his watery grave. As he began to lose his forward momentum from the throw and saw the water drawing closer, Megavolt closed his eyes and braced himself for impact with-

-with something squishy?

Opening his eyes hesitantly to make sure this wasn’t some sort of cruel near-death fantasy, Megavolt was shocked to see that he’d reached the surface of the water, as he expected, but it wasn’t **_water_** anymore. What he found himself laying on instead was a strange, rubbery yellow substance that looked a lot like the cube they’d found by the beach earlier.

In addition to the strangeness of finding himself suddenly (albeit gratefully) lying on a surprisingly buoyant substance of unknown origin instead of shorting out in the ocean like he’d dreaded, there was an additional anomaly within his yellow make-shift life-raft that Megavolt noticed right away:

**Hands**.

A pair of hands moving about within the rubbery substance had supported him when he’d landed, taking great lengths to make sure he didn’t hit his head or get whip-lash, and had since then begun to move to the edge of the unknown mass. Once they were on the edge, Megavolt saw something shift in the water by the hands and his little rubber island began to move slowly towards the direction that he’d last seen Quackerjack and Bushroot in.

“Megavolt!” He heard Quackerjack shout his name as the boat he and Bushroot were on got closer. “You alright, Sparky?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied, never taking his eyes off of the water by the hands. There was something odd about the way it moved, rolling about as if it were its own current. In fact, if he looked close enough, he could almost see a faint outline where the water looked a little different, almost like a person’s silhouette. “Hello..?” He asked, reaching out to touch the strange body of water. Unfortunately, making contact with the water was a terrible idea as it resulted in a spark of electricity that made him stumble back and nearly fall off of the yellow island and into the water below. “Ow!”

“Megavolt!” Over the sound of Bushroot calling out his name, Megavolt could swear he heard someone else’s voice yelp at the same time his own had and that there was a sudden and abrupt splash coming from the area he’d touched. “Idiot!” Bushroot’s long limbs stretched out and caught Megavolt before he could fall into the ocean. “What were you thinking?!”

“There’s someone in the water.” Megavolt said once Quackerjack had gotten the rubber ducky boat close enough for him to climb in. He looked back over to the spot he’d last seen the mysterious hands and was disappointed to find they, and the oddly moving current of water, were no longer in sight. “Hey! Anyone out there?!” He tried looking around for the silhouette he’d spotted earlier, but it’s hard to recognize a body of water WITHIN a body of water.

“You saw something, too?” Quackerjack questioned eagerly while searching for anything different in the water.

“Yeah- a pair of hands.” Megavolt explained while the two of them looked around. “And I KNOW I felt something in the water when I touched it.”

“You sure you didn’t just fry your nerves?” Bushroot asked with a disinterested expression.

“Well I’m pretty sure my fried nerves didn’t have anything to do with THAT.” Megavolt shot him a mildly irritated look and pointed at the strange yellow substance before returning his attention back to the water. “Hey! If anyone’s there, thanks for saving me! We could really use your help, though!”

There was a moment of silence, just long enough for Megavolt to doubt himself and what he’d seen, but then they heard him.

“Y-You…want m-my h-he-h-help…?” A deep but timid, gurgling voice asked them from somewhere within the water below them.

Much to their combined surprise, they saw a face appear within the water. It was simple and hardly noticeable had it not been staring dead at them, consisting of nothing more than two round eyes that were barely darker than the deep water around them and a slight line for a mouth.

Their reactions were….intense, to say the least.

“Woah!” Quackerjack gave an excited shout and leaned over the edge of the boat to get a better look at the face, nearly falling out in the process. “I knew it! You saved me too, right?! Are you MADE of water?! That’s awesome!”

Megavolt clung to the boat to keep from falling out while curiously examining the face looking up at them, attempting to see if he could spot any sort of body or silhouette in the water’s depths again, but finding none. “How big are you? Are you the size of the entire ocean, or are you just a concentrated mass mixed in? Do you suffer from any sort of diffusion effects?”

Bushroot just stared at the face in the water for a moment, a look of surprise on his own more solidly defined face. “Quackerjack was right. Twice in one day, too. We’re probably all about to die..” Giving a shake of his head and a sigh, Bushroot soon recovered from his initial shock and looked back to the water. Being much calmer than his companions, he noticed a few signs of discomfort on their new liquid-cohort’s face- the way his eyes shifted, the way he’d open his mouth to say something but close it again, the fact that the water around his face seemed to dip downward in an attempt to physically back away from their barrage of questions. Feeling an odd pang of sympathy for the watery creature and knowing how both Quackerjack and Megavolt could be oblivious to social cues, Bushroot firmly grabbed the two heroes that were half-way leaning out of the boat and firmly yanked them in by the backs of their shirts. “Geez, haven’t you guys heard of a little thing called _manners_? You’re supposed to wait until the third date to ask a mutant about their powers.” He shot them both a stern glare before looking down at the concave-face by the boat. “Sorry, I know they can be a bit much.”

“O-Oh, it-it’s f-fi-f-i-i-fi-” He seemed to struggle with his speech for a moment before rising back up to be level with the water’s surface. “It’s okay, I-I don’t m-mi-m-mind.”

The speech impediment was becoming glaringly obvious now that they’d had more conversation with him, but the three heroes (two plus a tag-along, Bushroot would have insisted) chose not to call attention to it.

Megavolt was about to say something else to the fascinating water creature, when the sound of loud splashing from earlier began to resume. “Huh?!” Looking back to where they’d left Neptunia and her army, he could barely make out her and her squid freeing the whales from the putty by summoning electric eels to fry the substance to a crisp and peeling it off. “Looks like break time’s over, guys.” He looked back down at the unnamed figure in the sea with a small smile that was partially pleading, but mostly understanding. “We’ll understand if you don’t wanna help- but, if you do, we’d appreciate anything at all.”

And with a quick wave to their new friend, the three took off back towards the tyrannical queen and her army of sea creatures while the hidden figure in the ocean stared after them.

“So, what’s the plan this time, Sparky?” Quackerjack asked while steering the boat so that it would counteract the swelling waves and not send any of them flying off.

“Don’t call me Sparky.” His reply came automatically. “And..same as before, I guess.” Megavolt admitted with a frown. “I’ll try to take down the diva of the deep while you two find a way to stop those waves from reaching the city.”

Bushroot looked at Megavolt with one brow cocked skeptically. “Hate to break it to you, Sparky-”

“Don’t call me Sparky!” Megavolt cut in briefly.

“-but you didn’t do too well against her last time.” Bushroot continued, ignoring Megavolt’s interruption as if he’d never said anything at all. “You got any OTHER plans?”

“Not really..” Megavolt rubbed at his neck while avoiding eye contact with the plant duck. “But..there’s not really much else I can do out here: My powers can’t do anything against those waves, but I can’t just sit by and do nothing.” He looked back up to the pair of ducks in the boat with him, giving them a slightly embarrassed but genuine smile. “The lives of the citizens come first, no matter what- that’s why I have to trust the hard stuff to the heroes that can **_actually_** save the day this time.”

The other two ended up smiling at him, although Bushroot tried to play his off by rolling his eyes. “Sappy as usual, huh, Sparky?” Before the usual retort could come, Bushroot reached over and flicked his leafy fingers against Megavolt’s forehead. “We’ll do what we can, but don’t go getting yourself dunked again, okay? Unless getting saved twice in one day by a living puddle is something you want us to tease you for.”

“And you know I’ll have fifty water related puns ready by the end of the day!” Quackerjack grinned teasingly at the electrically themed rodent. “But, hey, if we win it’ll just be _water under the bridge_!” He laughed at his own joke, falling over momentarily when Bushroot shoved him in retaliation for it.

“See what we have to look forward to?” Bushroot sighed while shaking his head. He looked at Megavolt, holding his hand out to the other man expectantly. “If I have to go through more lame jokes like that, you’ll BOTH be sleeping with the fishes, got it? So no losing.” The thinly veiled words of encouragement and the light squeeze to Megavolt’s gloved hand conveyed everything that the botanist refused to say.

Megavolt smiled softly and returned the squeeze to Bushroot’s own leafy extremities. “Same goes for you two- I don’t feel like finding a mime and a ball of sea-weeds floating in the ocean later.”

Bushroot smirked and flung Megavolt back towards Neptunia just like before, both of them ignoring Quackerjack’s enraged shouts regarding the insult of being compared to a mime even in death.

When he landed on the back of her whale, Neptunia gave the superhero a deadly glare. “Shouldn’t you be six feet under by now?”

Megavolt returned the glare with a challenging grin while charging his hands in preparation for another fight. “Haven’t you heard? Heroism is unsinkable- unlike you and your low-tide dreams of conquest!”

The fish queen grabbed her trident and spun it around, the bored look in her eyes clearly giving away how she felt about a second-round against the city’s protector. “We shall see how water-tight your ideals are when I’m through with you, nave.”

With that, the re-match was underway.

Megavolt had learned his lesson about the small sea-femme’s strength and stuck with distance attacks this time, favoring long-range shots of electricity over his earlier grappling. Neptunia, on the other hand, was trying to close the gap between them with flying leaps and swift thrusts with her trident that the rodent barely dodged.

After knocking her away with a particularly powerful plasma-pulse, Megavolt spared a glance to the whales around them to check on his comrades’ progress.

He wasn’t disappointed.

Quackerjack and Bushroot had resumed their earlier task of trying to stop the whales, but with an update to their tactics: This time Bushroot was the one working to incapacitate the whales while Quackerjack focused his efforts on stopping- or at least slowing down- the waves. The mutated botanist tossed seeds into the water near the whales and commanded them to grow, sprouting up into gigantic kelp forests that wrapped around and tangled the aquatic mammals’ tails to restrict their movements. Meanwhile, his more colorful companion had utilized a slingshot to shoot what, at a distance, looked like tiny capsules into the water along the path of the waves. When the capsules made contact with the water, however, they suddenly expanded at an incredibly fast pace- transforming into giant, brightly colored sponges shaped like dinosaurs, flowers, animals, and many other fun childishly cute things that absorbed the swelling waves before they could get too far.

“Yes!” Megavolt gave a quick cheer of excitement when he saw how well his friends were doing. Oh, he was **so** glad he wasn’t doing this hero thing by himself anymore! Honestly, there was no way he could’ve handled this one on his-

A loud, bellowing horn suddenly sounded off a few feet away from the sparky superhero, causing him to wince in pain and fall to his knees while covering his sensitive ears. When he recovered from the pain and looked towards the source of the debilitating sound, he saw Neptunia blowing into the seashell horn/megaphone from earlier.

Focusing his energy into his hand, Megavolt sent out a quick blast to break the horn, but the attempt only seemed to further amuse the tidal tyrant. “Too little too late, darling.” She told him with a smirk. “I’m afraid it’s time for the REAL attack to begin!”

Right on cue, the waves began to ripple and churn around them. Within seconds, a battalion of blue whales and a few colossal squids rose up from the water’s depths. Raising her trident as a signal to the newly revealed soldiers, the sea creatures heeded their queen’s call and raised their tails and tentacles in preparation.

Megavolt’s eyes widened in alarm and he turned to his friends, trying to warn them of the impending rush of doom about to head their way. “Guys, get out of there!!” The warning, unfortunately, came too late. Before his eyes a great surge of water was started in unison by the various sea creatures in attendance- a much larger, and far more powerful one that rivaled the tsunami that first struck the town- and Bushroot and Quackerjack were eclipsed and swallowed by the massive wave when it rolled over them. “Quackerjack! Bushroot!” Megavolt rushed to the edge of the whale he was currently standing on, desperately looking for any sign of the two other heroes within the chaotic current. When he found none, he fell to his knees, a look of shock and despair painted across his face. “No…” His voice shook around the simple word, his mind not wanting to believe the situation at hand.

“Aw, poor little washed-up hero. So much for heroism being ‘unsinkable’.” He heard the villainess’s voice drawing closer behind him, but he didn’t have the presence of mind to even bother facing her. “Don’t worry, darling- you will be joining them soon enough.” Megavolt could see the shadow of the fearsome fish’s trident, poised to strike.

“…….” Preparing to finally get back up so he could fight to avenge his friends and do what he could to save the city (even if he wasn’t sure what he COULD do yet), both Megavolt and Neptunia were startled to see a large, rubbery, bright yellow bubble suddenly breach the water’s surface- a bubble containing a water-logged but still breathing Quackerjack with Bushroot holding him protectively as the waves rocked their colorful container. “?!!”

“What?!” Neptunia stared at the bubble in an amusing mixture of anger and shock. “What in the seven seas is _that_?!”

Megavolt’s face lit up with an excited, confident grin at the realization of exactly what, or rather **_who_**, was responsible for the bubble that saved his partners’ lives. “_That_, you sinister sea creature, is heroism at its best!”

In perfect timing to demonstrate his point, an unnatural swell of water suddenly rose up in the path of the tsunami-sized tidal wave and rushed forward to meet it. Rather than meeting the other wave as water, though, the countering water-wall began to turn into the same bright yellow rubber that had already saved each of the heroes once that day.

The bouncy material proved to be water tight, not allowing any of the liquid through, and even repelling it back out to sea. What’s more, whenever some of the water began to push over the edge of the rubber-wall, it would quickly be converted into the rubber’s mass to help reinforce its structure. Whenever one of those changes occurred, interestingly enough, Megavolt could see a person-sized silhouette moving within the rubber, the figure rushing wherever it was needed to help reinforce the wall and protect the city.

Once the tsunami sputtered to a halt and the waves had calmed down, the rubber wall began to shift once more. This time, it changed shape into what looked like a giant cannon and opened fire on the various sea creatures under Neptunia’s command. The cannon would fire large balls of the rubbery material, but in a looser state. When the balls made contact with the various whales and squids, they would rapidly harden, immobilizing them in rubber shells.

“What?! What’s going on?!!” Neptunia sputtered while looking at the state of her army. “My army! This-This cannot be happening!” Once every squid and whale- minus the one that the pair were currently standing on- was encased in rubber, the cannon dissolved and another unnatural swell of water formed a wave that flowed smoothly & rapidly across the ocean’s surface, scooping up Neptunia’s entire battalion and washing them far out to sea. “NO!” She bellowed in rage, raising her trident threateningly. “The ocean is **_my_** domain! The tides bend to **_my_** will! **_I_** am the queen of the sea!!”

“The sea d-disagrees!” A familiar voice (well, mildly familiar to Megavolt, at least) challenged the underwater usurper while two large waves formed on either side of the whale. The waves soon shifted into a pair of giant hands that grabbed both Neptunia and her whale while forming a protective bubble around Megavolt similar to the one Quackerjack and Bushroot were still in. “Heroes everywhere agree, though- messing with St. Canard is dangerous for villains of all shapes, sizes, and species!” Once Megavolt’s bubble was safely floating on the water below, the large hands lifted the whale and the tyrannical terror of the deep high into the air. “So stay away, or you’ll get double your karma back- guaranteed!”

And with that threatening sales pitch delivered, the hands performed a more literal pitch and, after encasing the whale and the angrily screaming sea-queen in a rubber cube (reminding Megavolt of those gelatin molds people did with fruits or vegetables inside), proceeded to chuck the rubbery prison far off into the horizon in the same direction as the other creatures from before.

* * *

Sometime later, the small group of heroes were gathered on the beach. Their helpful new friend had helped out once again by moving all of the water out of the city and back out towards the bay- he’d even managed to remove any trash and debris from it and left it all in a few dumpsters around the coast.

When he spotted the face in the shallow water along the coast (much smaller now given the lower volume of liquid it was shown in), Megavolt walked over to it excitedly with a grin. “That was amazing! Seriously, we can’t thank you enough for what you did. If it wasn’t for you, we’d all be six feet under by now.”

Quackerjack looked down at the face and nodded in agreement. “He’s right- without you, we’d be all washed up!” He laughed at his own joke, earning an elbow to his side from Megavolt and a smack to the back of the head from Bushroot. Once his giggles had died down, he gave the living water below them a more sincere, less joking smile. “You were great, though, really.” He playfully nudged Bushroot with his elbow. “You’re seriously giving Bushy here a run for his money as ‘most amazing mutant in Saint Canard’!”

Bushroot shook his head at the comment. “Funny, I didn’t realize it was a contest.” He looked back down at the water, a half-smile tugging at the corner of his beak. “But…I guess I could give up the crown for someone like you, since you saved our lives and everything.”

If it was possible for water to blush, they would swear that was what was happening: Two little spots above the face’s mouth had turned slightly darker and there was a bit of steam coming off of them. “W-W-Wow..tha-that’s-that’s …the k-k-kind-ki-n-nicest thing anyone’s s-sai-s-said to me in a l-long-l-long t-ti-i-ti-” He paused to take a breath before continuing. “Th-That’s..the nicest thing a-anyone’s said to me in-in…in a while. Thank you.” It seemed to take some focusing to get everything out so concisely, but he looked relieved to have accomplished it.

Megavolt smiled down at the watery face in understanding. He may not have had a problem with stuttering, but he’d dealt with his fair share of difficulties due to his own “quirks”. Little things like remembering a previous conversation or an address were easy things for most people, but, for him, they were daily challenges he faced with varying degrees of difficulty. He imagined that getting through a sentence like that was a similar struggle for their new friend.

“You deserve that- and a lot more, too.” Megavolt stepped a bit closer, silently acknowledging Bushroot’s leafy hand on his shoulder with a gentle pat as it attempted to dissuade him from getting too close and risk shorting out. He bent over slightly and held a hand down towards the water with a bright smile on his face, hoping that it would be more inviting and less overwhelming than when he first tried to talk to the living liquid. “We would love to have you on our team. If you want to, that is. Like I said before, it’s fine if you don’t want to, but we could really use your help.”

The creature in the water stared at his hand in surprise. “You…Y-You really…want m-m-m-me-e…?”

Quackerjack planted one elbow on Megavolt’s back and leaned on him casually while pretending to look around the coastline. “Oh, do you know any other selfless, heroic, life-saving, super cool living bodies of water around here?” He asked sarcastically before grinning down at the face in the water. “Of course we want you! You’ve got cool powers AND you’re already good at saving lives? We’d be crazy not to ask!”

“Sanity is still questionable, at best.” Bushroot shoved the harlequin off of the rodent’s back with a roll of his eyes, causing him to fall into the shallow water and muddy sand below (though he was quickly helped up by a watery hand that rose up out of the surf). After smirking down at the other duck’s sand-covered face, the plant-duck redirected his attention back to the other mutant. “Either way, there’s no way you could be any worse at it than me.”

Megavolt looked over his shoulder with a frown and a mildly chastising look as he softly spoke the same words to his self-deprecating friend that he always said in these situations. “You’re a hundred times better than you think you are.” He smiled fondly when the usual darker green color settled over Bushroot’s cheeks and he turned his head away in hopes that his long petal-hair would obscure the sight from the others (it never did, but it was endearing to watch him try). Laughing quietly to himself for a moment at the adorable way the grumpy plant-hybrid crossed his arms, Megavolt returned his attention to the water once again, his hand still outstretched as an offering to their potential new member. “So, what do you say? Want to join the greatest superhero team in Saint Canard?”

There was a long moment of silence from the floating face. Then, without warning, it faded away without a single word. Megavolt’s smile slipped, his mind already going over what he must have said wrong to drive away such a wonderful hero. Maybe he’d come on too strong with the team up offer? Quackerjack had gone for it immediately, but Bushroot had taken a while. Maybe he should have-

A hand stretched out of the water towards Megavolt’s own. Just before making contact with it, the water’s consistency changed to rubber so that it could grasp the shocking-superhero without shorting him out. The hand was soon followed by an entire body of water- a person’s body, that is, not the entire ocean. As it rose up from the shallows the water began to take a more defined form, shifting into that of a dog- the water on his body even changed to create the image of a pair of dark blue pants with a lighter blue top and a dark blue tie. When he opened his eyes and smiled shyly at the stunned superheroes, the trio instantly recognized the blue dots from the previously more simple face.

The water-dog shook Megavolt’s hand with his own rubberized one, taking a deep breath before giving them a proper introduction. “Has your city been ruled over by a tyrannical duck with a height complex for far too long? Are a motley crew of thugs, criminals, and/or supervillains causing trouble for superheroes and everyday citizens alike? Then call on the reliable services of THE LIQUIDATOR for all your crime-fighting needs! One round with this hydro-powered hero and the bad guys will be alllllll washed up- guaranteed or your money back!” He finished his introductory sales-pitch with a wink. His confidence quickly deflated, however, when the other three people on the beach just stared at him silently with the same wide-eyed expression. “Um…w-was that to-t-too much..?”

All at once the trio returned to their senses and properly welcomed their new member with open arms- literal ones in Quackerjack’s case.

The colorful clown-hero whooped loudly and wrapped his arms around Liquidator’s shoulders. “You’ve already got a cool name AND lines prepped?! Oh, you are a keeper, buddy!” (They were all too excited to notice the way the dog’s ears twitched slightly at the term of endearment.)

The excitement in Megavolt’s eyes shone brightly enough to be seen through his safety glasses as he looked at Liquidator’s rubberized hand in his own. “Okay, I’ve gotta know- how **_are_** you doing this?! Did you just alter the chemical composition of the water to-”

He was interrupted by a leafy slap to the back of his head. “Remember, Sparky- third date.”

“Don’t call me Sparky!” Megavolt said with a pout before looking around at the small group of allies he’d found himself with a slowly growing smile. “I guess we’ll need a new name, huh?”

“Yeah, we’re not the ‘Terrific Trio’ anymore.” Quackerjack raised one hand, keeping the other around their newest member’s shoulders. “Ooh! Ooh! How about the ‘Fearsome Four’! It sounds cool and I _know_ you’re a sucker for alliteration, Sparky!”

Liquidator frowned slightly as he looked at the clown beside him. “D-Doesn’t sound very fr-frien-f-friendly..”

“Friendly…” Megavolt said the word aloud, tapping his chin in thought. “Friendly…” Then, as if to act as a visual representation of his epiphany since there were no lightbulbs to turn on above his head, a shimmering bolt of electricity raced upwards from his boots and curled around his torso all the way up to his head before dancing off the tips of his hair and whiskers. “That’s it!” He beamed at his newly formed team and held a hand out in front of him. “From now on, we’re the ‘Friendly Four’!”

Quackerjack chuckled at the other hero’s enthusiasm and placed his hand on top of the gloved one of his friend. “Sounds good to me, Sparky!”

Liquidator smiled and placed his hand on top of Quackerjack’s. “That…That d-does sound a lot n-nic-cer.”

Bushroot sighed in annoyance, his hands currently shoved deep in his pockets. “I don’t know why you guys insist on including me in your head-count. I keep telling you: I’m not a hero.” Just as Megavolt and Quackerjack were about to argue the subject with him for what felt like the millionth time, they saw one leafy hand leave the confines of its coat pocket before joining the pile. “But…you guys would look pretty stupid if you ran around calling yourselves the ‘Friendly Four’ and there were only three of you…so I guess I’ll stick around until you find someone better to take my place.”

Quackerjack laughed and smiled at the other two members of their group. “You hear that, guys? We get to keep Bushy forever!”

“Hey, I didn’t say that!” The ex-botanist snapped at the toymaker with a harsh glare that was easily tempered by the visible blush on his green cheeks.

As the two launched into a teasing argument over Bushroot’s place on the team, Quackerjack using Liquidator as a living barrier between himself and the irate plant-duck when the greener mutant tried to catch his non-powered ally, Megavolt looked at the other members of his team with an affectionate smile. For at least two decades he’d been fighting for this city all by himself. Now, though, now he had a **team**.

Things were likely going to get rougher before they got better for the rag-tag group of heroes, but, one thing was for sure:

This team had a bond between them that would not be broken- not even by Negaduck and the other forces of evil plaguing their city. The Friendly Four were going to save the day, no matter what!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that concludes the first story for my Friendly Four universe. I hope everyone enjoyed it ^//////^ I have a lot of ideas for this universe and, for the first couple of stories, they’ll be set up like this with each character or pair of characters getting their own chapter that matches with the theme/title of the story.
> 
> Also, just as a funny side note, I didn’t originally intend for it to happen, but it ended up being that each of the heroes ended up defeating the same character their villainous counterparts took out from the Justice Ducks. I always intended for Liquidator to be the one to confront Neptunia, but Quackerjack and Bushroot taking out Shamutt and Morgana just kind of happened by accident and I ran with it.
> 
> Gizmoduck was left out on purpose, but don’t worry- he’ll get his appearance in the next installment, and it’ll leave quite an impact on the heroes *cue evil chuckling with lightning flashing in the background*


End file.
